Watch any late-night television talk show or Hollywood movie or star today and it’s simple to notice all are infused with liberal politics and anti-Conservative overtures that continue to alienate a growing number of Americans.
Johnny Carson warned network television and Hollywood about this decades ago. The Tonight Show legend refused to infuse his comedic approach with politics except for poking fun at political figures during his monologues.
But as far as promoting liberal idealogy all day, every day, Carson always took a pass on picking sides, a move that he realized would have pitted one portion of his audience against another.
Hollywood and television, however, did not follow Carson’s lead and the rest is history. Now, both mediums are largely struggling, YET each continues to defy Carson’s common-sense approach to entertainment: Do not preach. Do not divide. Just entertain.
A video clip of a Carson interview with CBS news legend Mike Wallace perhaps says it the best. Move forward to the 5:05 minute mark of the video.
Carson’s ratings dwarf Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show numbers and Fallon’s numbers are boosted by the invention and addition of the DVR. Carson’s ratings were based on actual live viewers. Fallon’s numbers are not. Carson was averaging 6.5 million viewers in 1991, his last full season. Fallon pulls 2.4 million viwers based on 2018 ratings.
Carson at one point was attracting over 19 million live viewers.
To be fair to Fallon, late-night TV talk ratings overall have plummeted. Especially in recent years.
Alienating half of your audience will do that.
Just as Carson realized it would.