Late-night hosts are ramping up their political activism for President Biden as the November election nears, a move critics say is alienating audiences and destroying comedy.
"One of the reasons late night is failing in the ratings is because these guys are not reading the room. They’re throwing their energy behind the president who’s polling behind ISIS," "FOX Across America" host Jimmy Failla joked to Fox News Digital.
ABC's Jimmy Kimmel is the latest late-night host to lead a star-studded celebrity fundraiser for Biden's 2024 campaign. George Clooney, Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama appeared alongside Biden at the glitzy June 15 event in Los Angeles that reportedly raised over $30 million.
The Hollywood fundraiser comes less than three months after CBS' Stephen Colbert participated in a lavish record-setting fundraiser that brought in $26 million for the Biden campaign.
"They shouldn’t be raising money for Biden’s campaign. They should be raising money for his diapers if anything," Failla joked.
These fundraisers are prime examples of how late-night comedy has turned "proudly partisan," "more one-sided" and "generally soft on Biden," a recent Politico report described.
On their late-night comedy shows, Kimmel, Colbert and NBC's Seth Meyers continue to blur the line between comedy and activism.
After joking about Biden's age this week, Meyers warned his viewers not to equate the Democratic president with his GOP rival, former President Trump.
"Now a quick disclaimer for anybody who’s mad about my Biden-is-old jokes," Meyers said. "As we made clear on this show repeatedly, there’s no equivalency between a competent 81-year-old who occasionally shows signs of age and a demented 77-year-old criminal who says dead people rigged the election and thinks electric boat batteries will lead to shark attacks."
Failla said the late-night shows are "failing" in the ratings because they are only attracting audiences who agree with their partisan spin.
"When it comes to guys like Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, the audience is never surprised when the trap door opens over Donald Trump‘s name, and for that reason, it’s hard to take them seriously as comedians," Failla said.
"[Meyers] is not doing comedy. He’s giving a partisan lecture and when people applaud you it’s because they agree with you. It’s not because they find you funny," Failla added.
A study by conservative watchdog the Media Research Center found that 81% of all political jokes told on the major late night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" had the highest rate of anti-conservative jokes for a single show out of the six studied.
Kimmel has said he's lost at least half of his viewers due to his attacks on the former president. He said he refused the network's request to be more "neutral" in his comedy to boost ratings, telling executives, "If you want somebody else to host the show, then that’s fine. That’s OK with me. I’m just not going to do it like that."
Comedians like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno would take shots at both sides and would never be "confused for political activists," Joe Concha told Fox News Digital.
"These hosts don't care if their ratings suffer with half the country tuning out. Their bosses don't care how it reflects on the network. The adults have left the room, all in the name of extreme Trump Derangement Syndrome," the Fox News contributor added.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live," CBS’ "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," and NBC’s "Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" have all shed viewers over the past year despite being the primary late-night program on each network.
In 2024, CBS’ "Late Show" is down 8% in total viewers compared to the first six months of 2023 for the biggest decline of the trio, while NBC’s "Tonight Show" is down 12% for the biggest loss among the key demographic ages of 25-54 during the same period.
"The truth is, real comedy doesn’t have a political party," Failla said. "It’s supposed to unite people. When you’re throwing a party, you don’t ask people at the door who they voted for."
Fox News' David Rutz and Brian Flood contributed to this article.
