Stephen Colbert’s retirement as host of CBS’ “The Late Show” may mark the end of a historic TV franchise, but the late night tradition is far from dead.
Comedy is thriving on podcasts, where former late-night hosts like Conan O’Brien, Chelsea Handlerand Samantha Bee have all found second acts.
They are joined by established comedians like Amy Poehler, stand-up acts like Theo Von and rising stars like Kareem Rahma, whose interviews with celebrities on the New York subway have attracted widespread attention.
Trevor Noah, the former host of ‘The Daily Show’, has spoken on his podcast ‘What Now? With Trevor Noah’ a much larger audience than on television.
His podcast has attracted nearly 4.6 million subscribers on YouTube, more than ten times the audience of his Comedy Central show, which averaged 372,000 viewers in the last year he hosted the show.
“YouTube is fantastic. It’s a place where I can make the shows I want, with the people I want, in the way I want,” Noah said as he pitched YouTube to advertisers this month.
Compare that to late-night TV, where audiences have steadily declined.
Fifteen years ago, top comedy shows on the networks could make more than $100 million a year.
The economy has changed drastically. Colbert’s “The Late Show,” which employed an estimated 200 people including writers, producers, musicians and support staff, was losing as much as $40 million a year.
Podcasts cost a fraction of television and the talent owns the show, allowing them to reap the financial benefits from the advertising, subscriptions, sponsorships, events and even product sales.
Advertising dollars have followed the audience. At least $30 million in spending shifted from TV comedy shows to podcasting last quarter, according to ad tracking company Guideline. Advertising spend on late night television has fallen by almost 60% since 2017.
YouTube’s dominance in the living room has contributed to the increase in the number of podcasts, especially video podcasts, which resemble TV talk shows.
According to SSRS’ Edison Research, it has become the most popular destination for weekly podcasts, eclipsing Spotify and Apple.
In October alone, viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube from their living rooms, compared to 400 million hours a year earlier.
O’Brien helped pave the way for other comedians who have left the late-night stage. He launched the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” eight years after walking away from NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in 2010.
It now ranks 15th among the nation’s top 50 podcasts, according to Edison Research, and has racked up more than 230 million downloads since its debut in 2018.
“He was turned away late at night,” said Megan Lazovick, Edison’s vice president of research. “Now he has a huge career and really the freedom to do what he wants.”
That freedom stands in stark contrast to the corporate and political pressures found on traditional television, forces that have led to the dismantling of CBS’s “The Late Show” franchise.
“You’re not just a hired host on someone else’s property,” said Ben Davis, co-head of digital at the WME talent agency, which represents “Hot Ones” host Sean Evans and Amy Poehler. “You can own your show and do whatever you want with it creatively.”
Davis said owning a podcast and building his business through advertising, sponsorships and licensing deals can provide the kind of reward that talent “eclipses the initial compensation a traditional TV show might receive.
He declined to provide specific financial details about the agency’s clients, including Colbert.
Advertising giant WPP estimates that podcast advertising revenue rose 25% in the first quarter of the year compared to a year ago.
Comedy has always been on the edge of brand safety, says Sean Wright, Guideline’s chief insights and analytics officer. “The whole point is to push boundaries to make things funny.”
As for Colbert, he may not be going the podcast route anytime soon. He is working with filmmaker Peter Jackson on a new film based on the first chapters of JRR Tolkien’s novel ‘Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’.
“I’ll see you all in the shire,” he said in a YouTube video announcing the project. – Reuters
