LIFE AFTER TELEVISION: TV expert reveals the next late-night host to get the boot after Kimmel suspension and who will be the last man standing.
Seth Meyers is the next late-night talk host to face the axe after Jimmy Kimmel‘s suspension, a TV expert has predicted.
Professor Robert Thompson, who founded the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, shared his gloomy forecast with the Daily Mail a day after Kimmel’s show was pulled over comments he made about Charlie Kirk.
‘There is a theme going on here,’ Thompson said, discussing Kimmel’s ‘indefinite’ suspension and the looming cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
He pointed to the clear shift away from the politically charged jokes of late-night hosts like Colbert, Kimmel and Meyers.
‘It could very well be that [Jimmy] Fallon is the last guy standing,’ Thompson said.
‘Meyers is the one guy doing this type of comedy who hasn’t been fired yet. These last stories indicate that era is over.
‘I can see a period in the very near future where Fallon is the last franchise left – the oldest franchise, at that.’
Thompson went on to compare Fallon’s ‘apolitical’ approach to that of late-night legends Johnny Carson and Jay Leno.
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If Kimmel doesn’t return to ABC, ‘NBC will be the only broadcast network with comedy people doing this type of format’ after Colbert departs CBS next year., Thompson said.
He added that linear television had already been deteriorating before the pandemic, and that for ‘all of the next generation who grew up watching Colbert and Kimmel, broadcast television isn’t the place for them.’
‘Substack and YouTube is where the action is and where the audiences are. Every decision made by legacy companies is indicating that.
Iowahawk issues a timely note as to what viewers are still using television to consume:
If we're all being honest the only thing people still watch on old timey 4-network TV is football
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 18, 2025
As always, be careful if you run into anyone who actually still gets their news from TV:
(Classical reference in headline.)