JAY LENO CRITICIZES MODERN LATE-NIGHT COMEDY FOR ALIENATING HALF THE AUDIENCE WITH PARTISAN POLITICS:

Jay Leno reflected on why he always kept his jokes politically balanced while hosting “The Tonight Show” for over two decades.

The 75-year-old comedian recently sat down for an interview with David Trulio, the president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, during which he was questioned about his approach to political humor.

“I read that there was an analysis done of your work on ‘The Tonight Show’ for the 22 years and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats. Did you have a strategy?” Trulio asked.

“It was fun to me when I got hate letters [like] ‘Dear Mr. Leno, you and your Republican friends’ and ‘Well, Mr. Leno, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy’ — over the same joke,” Leno recalled.

‘And I go, ’Well, that’s good,'” he said. “That’s how you get a whole audience.”

Leno went on to note how late-night comedy has changed amid the current divisive political landscape.

“Now you have to be content with half the audience because you have [to] give your opinion,” Leno said.

20 years ago at least, like Johnny Carson before him, Jay was a traditional Hollywood establishment Democrat:

Leno says, “I’m not conservative. I’ve never voted that way in my life.” He “really worries” what a Dubya victory in November will do to the makeup of the Supreme Court. He believes “the wool was pulled over our eyes” with the Iraq war. He thinks the White House began using terrorism “as a crutch” after 9/11. He feels that during the campaign Kerry should “make Bush look as stupid as possible.” He believes “the media is in the pocket of the government, and they don’t do their job” so “you have people like Michael Moore who do it for them.” He has on his joke-writing staff a number of former professional speechwriters for Democratic candidates. “No Republicans.” When it comes to Bush, he doesn’t think his politics are much different from Letterman’s. “Does he show his dislike maybe a little more than I do? Probably.”

In September of 2016, Leno was quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying:  Trump Needs “The Crap Beat Out of Him Just Once:”

Sitting in the Mercedes-Benz Lounge at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last month, Leno, leaning on his self-deprecating humor that captivated decades of NBC viewers, singled out Trump. “I think this is the problem with Donald Trump. I don’t think anybody has just ever beaten the crap out of him, so he has this attitude of ‘whatever.’ When you have the crap beat out of you, you learn how to negotiate, you learn how to deal with people,” Leno explains. “You learn that kindness is the greatest virtue you can have.”

I’d say that after all of the lawfare, multiple impeachment attempts – and assassination attempts – Jay’s fellow kind and tolerant Democrats have more than beat the crap out of Trump. But give Leno points for not his iteration of the Tonight Show as a leftist bully pulpit while on the air:

(Scroll to the 8:17 mark if the video doesn’t auto-play beginning there.)

In sharp contrast: Colbert’s left-wing ‘Late Show’ became ‘therapy’ session for liberals: study.

Embattled funnyman Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” became a “therapy” session for the left — and it’s no surprise viewers took notice, a new study found.

Since 2022, Colbert has hosted 176 left-leaning guests and only one Republican on soon-to-be cancelled “The Late Show,” according to a study by media watchdog NewsBusters — a staggering imbalance that has tracked with his 2025 guest list.

In just the first six months of this year, the show booked 43 left-leaning political guests — and zero conservatives — leading all late-night programs in partisan tilt.

“Colbert’s show has been late-night group therapy for liberals,” NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told The Post. “Americans have continually shown they no longer have the time or patience for such partisan sneering masquerading as comedy.”

Fellow Democrat Connie Chung is melting down that the Paramount Skydance merger forecasts “the end of CBS as I knew it.” But it’s actually much more than that: Canceling Colbert Begins the End of Television.