Vince Vaughn Says Late Night Lost Viewers When It Became ‘Agenda-Based’

Vince Vaughn did not hold back in his takedown of late-night "comedy."

One of the more tragic collapses in American pop culture has been late-night, with hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert turning once-broad platforms into predictable political soapboxes.

These shows used to aim for laughs. 

Now, too often, they push the same partisan messaging. During a recent appearance on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend, Vaughn explained why late-night keeps losing viewers.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 12:  Actor Vince Vaughn speaks during his star ceremony at The Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 12, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)

In his view, the problem is simple: late-night stopped trying to entertain and started trying to instruct.

Theo said: "Why a lot of the late shows have struggled because all they did during like all they did the only person they could make fun of at a certain point was just like white redneck kind of people and it f***ing and then everything tanked after that."

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The Wedding Crashers star zeroed in on why viewers have moved elsewhere.

"Think about that. They never get it right," Vaughn said. 

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He continued, "The podcasts have gotten so much more popular. With less production, less writers, less staff. Because people want authenticity. And I think that the talk shows, to a large part, became really agenda-based. They were gonna evangelize people what they thought. 

"You know what I mean? And so people just rejected it because it didn't feel authentic. It felt like they had an agenda. It stopped being funny, and it started feeling like I was in f***ing a class I didn't want to take."

Colbert, in particular, became a symbol of how far the format fell. In his decline, Colbert used his platform to push vaccine mandates and scold anyone who refused to fall in line, the kind of activism old late-night legends never would have made the centerpiece of the monologue.

Kimmel took a once-broad, fairly apolitical stage and turned it into the weekly TDS "Comedy" Hour. Night after night, the jokes gave way to lectures, the punchlines gave way to applause bait, and the audience was expected to clap along with whatever partisan sermon came next.

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE - Emmy Award-nominated "Jimmy Kimmel Live" airs every weeknight (11:35 p.m. - 12:41 a.m., ET),  packed with hilarious comedy bits and features a diverse lineup of guests including celebrities, athletes, musicians, comedians and humorous human interest subjects - The guests for WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 included actor Vince Vaughn ("Unfinished Business") and Mike Tyson ("Champs").  (Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

People did not abandon late-night shows because they stopped liking comedy. Instead, they abandoned it because too many hosts stopped being funny and started acting like the country needed another political compass. 

Over time, viewers moved to podcasts and long-form conversations that at least feel real.

That is also what made the old guard work. 

Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien could all be straight about the news without turning late-night into a sermon. 

They could needle politicians, mock the culture and still make the audience feel in on the joke. They entertained first. That is why America embraced them.

Vaughn kept going:

"But if you look at what happened to the talk shows and why their ratings are low, it's got only to do with the fact of what you just said, which is they all became the same show. And they all become so about their politics and who's good and who is bad. And it's like, imagine sitting next to someone like that on a f***ing plane. Bro, you'd be like, how do I get out of this f***ing seat?"

Viewers do not want to be talked down to by partisan late-night lifers. They want authenticity, which is why podcasts keep growing while legacy late-night keeps fading.

Even guys caught up in Hollywood know what audiences have been saying for years: late-night lost viewers when it stopped mocking power and started performing for it.

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