Inexplicable TV Review: A ranking of late night comedy political shows

The current king of the mountain.

Here is my current power rankings of the late night political comedy shows, since there has been quite a bit of upheaval the past two years, thanks to the “retirements” of Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert, essentially. If it’s not on this list (of four), then I’m probably not watching it. I’ll have a ranking of the “proper” late night shows at another time.

4) The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore. I understand what Comedy Central was trying to do with this show, but ugh. It just reminds me of a low-wattage Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher’s show that was on ABC ages ago (at this point). On paper, the concepts of both shows seemingly work – Let’s get a panel of comedians and smart people to talk about some current events! However, in practice, it often devolves into the loudest voices getting the most airtime, and spitballed, ad-libbed crap takes the place of polished material you typically see on a late night show.

Unsurprisingly to me, the ratings are bad. Per Wikipedia, the show started with an average of 885,000 live viewers a show in January 2015. Viewers fell steadily to 615,000 in May, before ticking back up to 773,000 in July. However, from July, they’ve plateaued between 500,000 and 570,000, with a nadir of 405,000 in September. In contrast, The Colbert Report was around 1.24 million. The show doesn’t seem like it costs much to produce, so I imagine it’s safe up until a) Comedy Central thinks of something ‘better’ to put on the air, which is highly debatable with them or b) the contracts for the show’s talent come due.

3) The Daily Show With Trevor Noah. I seem to like Noah more than many others on the Internet, but I think he’s a bit ‘wrong’ for The Daily Show’s established format at this point. He seems much more comfortable with lighter pieces and celebrities than Stewart ever was, but he definitely struggles with the political aspects. Ratings are better than The Nightly Show, with around 800,000 viewers, but still well off the levels established by Stewart.

I think the show would be better if they pivoted back toward the show that Craig Kilborn ran, which was way more focus on entertainment and celebrities. There’s a bit of a void in this category to me, since The Soup is finally off the air, unfortunately. However, I realize what audience they have might revolt at this point from such a major format change.

The other option would be to just change the host, and give Noah his own show that’s more appropriate for what he wants to do. Like, give him an entertainment-focused show at midnight or 10:30 p.m. (The latter worked so well for Leno!) I don’t think Tina Fey or Amy Poehler or other established megastars would be interested in the job, but any of the current correspondents would probably be better at a politically-themed show. Especially Jessica Williams.

2) Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. It’s early, but it’s really good through the three episodes I’ve seen. The show is currently weekly, but I’d like to see it expand to daily, to pair more properly with Conan’s show. I might write more fully about it in the future, when there are more episodes to really analyze.

1) Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. It’s heavily made the rounds this week because of Donald Trump, which is good, because the show really found its legs in its second season. When it initially hit the airwaves, it felt like a worse version of The Daily Show to me. After all, why would I be interested in a version of that show that came out simply once a week?

However, the show shifted its focus to a single long segment or big issue a week, and struck gold. While the focus has been on the Trump takedown this week, I think his single best segment has been on horrible, exploitive churches and preachers. In that single 20-minute segment, there are actually three separate, splendid comedy segments – the initial layout of the issue with Oliver’s comments, the detailing of the correspondence exchange with the preacher, and then, the establishment of Oliver’s church. And unlike a lot of shows, Oliver followed up on the church with two additional segments in future episodes.

While the church episode was my favorite, each week Oliver is doing a similar mixture of journalistic expose and humor on a new issue. I actually thought his Trump one was one of his weaker efforts, as his best ones are normally somewhat apolitical, like on public defenders or the stupidity of the penny, or about how his own memes are incorrect. Regardless, each week his show is appointment viewing for me.

Props for The Carell Corral (and The Colbert Report)

Yesterday, I gave props to The Daily Show for its ridiculous and great Michael Steele Muppet. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't also praise its counterpart, The Colbert Report. (Also, I'm not really sure what "I'd be remiss" means, but I've also heard it used in this context. So, I'm going to assume I'm using it correctly. As Lt. Frank Drebin from Police Squad would say, like a blind man at an orgy, I'm feeling my way out.)

Wednesday's episode was the highlight of the past couple weeks for me. The show opened with a fake dream sequence seen above. Steve Carell was the guest, and mocked Colbert throughout the segment, until Colbert realized that it was all a dream, and that he hadn't lost his show, or his hand to a hoof... OR DID HE???

It was a bit of a flashback show because of Carell's presence, since they're both former Daily Show staffers. Instead of a straight interview for the final segment, they re-did a bit from their Daily Show days - Even Stevens. This was bitter, angry and confrontational, which made it awesome, and the cameo by Jon Stewart at the end helped too.

In terms of overall quality, The Colbert Report is definitely not as consistent as The Daily Show to me, but I think its highs tend to be higher. I also like the philosophical bent of the show more - Colbert is clearly playing a character, which makes him a bit more immune from the type of criticism Stewart normally gets, since Stewart is a slightly left-of-center person and broadcaster. I still agree with Stewart that if douchenozzles like Tucker Carlson want to call him a political commentator, they do so at their own peril, since he has at times followed a show with puppets making prank phone calls.

(p.s. By the way, did you know Carell is leaving The Office? I think this could be good for the show, which definitely lost some heat off its fastball this past season. I hope they give him a happy ending, and have him quit his job to be with Holly, but I realize with the spotty writing of this past season that they would probably make even this tender moment some ridiculous, farcical situation.)

Colbert can't hang with his buddy Muhammad :(

I guess everyone is now kind of immune to images of Muhammad being censored out. It happened again on Thursday's Colbert Report, as he was trying to show a picture of himself with his buddy Muhammad, resulting in the image to the right. There was then a quick editing cut to Colbert just sitting at his desk, which makes the small percentage of my brain devoted to conspiracies wonder if he had said more, and it got cut by Comedy Central.

Speaking of Comedy Central, they are still cowards. And hypocritical, given their stance on Jesus and their attitude toward other religions. I'm an atheist, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but Comedy Central is letting the extremists win when they decide to censor images of Muhammad because they're offensive as opposed to anything else. You know, like when they had Buddha doing lines of cocaine in episode "201".

And predictably, this has emboldened nutty fanatics of other religions to point out the hypocrisy. I imagine at some point, either they'll make a threat in an attempt to get something removed from an episode, or Parker and Stone will quit the show or bring it to another network. Their current contract runs through 2013, and it wouldn't surprise me if they abruptly quit after that, or tried to give Comedy Central a big "F U" finger on the way out.

Programming note: I'll have a late entry tonight, since Betty White is hosting Saturday Night Live. Woohoo! I'm hoping it's a good episode, and between her and Jay-Z, there is a lot of potential here.

Stephen Colbert, you magnificent bastard!

While The Daily Show remains brilliant, I've written about it kind of recently. Therefore, I instead offer a tip of my cap to Stephen Colbert, who has also been on a roll recently.

I've been watching regularly for the past two weeks, and I definitely think Colbert has recovered from a small swoon following the Winter Olympics. I found a lot of his Olympic coverage, outside of the curling, kind of boring, but hey, most everyone else liked it. I think Colbert is much sharper though when he is playing his character for "sharp" and ignorant criticism, as opposed to genuinely backing a cause.

Case in point - His withering critique this week of the bartering system proposed by some wacky GOP candidate in Nevada. If you didn't manage to catch the episode, the segment is on Comedy Central's website, and also on this website. It is worth checking out, immediately!

Grade: A+

TV Review: Dash Worthington is my new hero.

I really, really enjoy The Daily Show's Senior Supreme Court Correspondent, Dash Worthington. As Jon Stewart noted on Monday night's broadcast, he has been on the beat since 1936 for the show, so that's experience and reliability you can count on. Also, he makes up fantastic new words, like qussy - a combination of quitter and pussy, like retiring Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens. Worthington notes that the Supreme Court appointment is "for life," so really, Stevens is being a quitter and a pussy for backing out early.

If you haven't been watching lately, well, The Daily Show and its brother show The Colbert Report have been on fire lately. (I was going to call Colbert the sister show, but I really don't think he would approve.) Both have had their A-game for the past month, especially The Daily Show. Stewart's take on the nuclear fiasco last week was hilarious, and characters like Worthington and Michael Steele as voiced by Wyatt Cenac.

Grade: A+ for The Daily Show
Grade: A for The Colbert Report

Surveying the late night scene

Continuing from part one of my look at late night. Where does this leave everyone in the grand scheme of late night? Looking at everyone else, by network...

- At NBC, you have Leno, who I suppose will be his solid and unspectacular self. He is almost 60, so you have to think he has a decade left, at most, and that's giving him the benefit of the doubt that he will stay as relevant and "culturally hip" as he is now. Which is to say, a net zero, as opposed to someone derided for being tragically unhip. And, in light of his failure at 10 and the orchestration of Conan out of NBC, I think there is a great chance that Leno to 11:30 backfires completely on NBC.

One aspect of this whole equation that I think goes unreported is the strength of Conan at 12:30, which no doubt helped Leno maintain hit ratings during his last half hour. I actually like Jimmy Fallon at 12:30 - his show has some creative ideas, like the Wheel of Carpet Samples and his writing of "thank you" notes on Fridays. He also somehow got The Roots as his house band and uses them well, and he's also had some legitimate guests. However, he definitely doesn't have the cachet of Conan yet.

And although I don't wish any ill-will toward him, if something did suddenly have a problem with Leno, they have no clear in-house replacement. They would either 1) have to patch things up very, very nicely with Conan and pay him out the ass to come back or 2) pay someone else a ton of money to fill the void, who probably doesn't have any late night experience. Fallon simply isn't ready, so I think you might see an "established" name like Jerry Seinfeld or Steve Martin or Martin Short (to pluck some names out of the air) lured to NBC with an insane amount of money.

- At CBS, Letterman will probably be largely unchanged, although maybe more venomous toward Leno. He was the cranky old man in this whole drama, throwing stones at NBC and Leno from his perch atop the ratings at CBS. He seemed simultaneously pissed off at NBC, for doing the same thing to Conan as they did to him, and gleeful, for them wallowing in such misery.

If Leno has a problem with age and a sudden health deterioration, well, I guess CBS has the same problem with Letterman and a proper succession plan. They're in a kind of “strong” position if something catastrophic happens to him in the next couple of months, since Conan is a free agent and out on the market. But assuming that Conan does get snapped up by someone, then Craig Ferguson isn't a clear guy to step up into the 11:30 spot. To me, Ferguson follows more in the footsteps of past CBS 11:30 hosts like Tom Snyder and Craig Kilbourn - I liked both, but they have a niche appeal.

However, luckily for CBS, they have a natural promotion to make - Jon Stewart is just sitting there at Comedy Central at 11, ripe for the taking. Yes, Viacom technically no longer owns CBS, but they still have so many business dealings together that I think an ascension by Stewart after Letterman leaves is only natural. I also don't think that you'd have the bumpy issue of intellectual property if Stewart went from Comedy Central to CBS, and I think The Daily Show would transport pretty well to a major network, even if Stewart doesn't want to do a monologue. As is, it feels cramped at times with just 30 minutes, and adding another interview and/or a musical act each night would easily get you to an hour.

- At ABC, they seem pretty content with their current lineup of Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live. I love Jimmy Kimmel - I think he consistently does the best show, with weird, quirky bits like having his Uncle Frank and Security Guard Guillermo in skits, but his ratings have stayed pretty level after a slow start. Of the current Big Four late night hosts, I think he gets the best out of his interview segments, with a nod toward Colbert and Stewart on cable as being as his level.

Nightline is what it is: great counter programming to all of the late night yuk-yuks. Any time there is a major news event, its ratings swell. I'm sure it makes Kimmel's life more difficult, but the night as a whole is a critical success for ABC because of Nightline, and probably a commercial success as well. I don't think Kimmel or the rotating hosts of Nightline make anywhere near the salaries of Leno, Letterman and Conan. I also think there is little chance that Conan ends up at ABC, just because they'd have to essentially scrap two in-house programs that are average to above-average successes for them.

- Finally, I think Comedy Central deserves to be in this conversation, because The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both siphoning off the younger viewers that would formerly watch Letterman and Leno. Part of this is because those two hosts are getting old, but the other aspect is the brilliance of Stewart and Colbert.

I previously mentioned that Stewart seems destined for CBS at some point, and I imagine that when that happens, Colbert moves up to 11. I'm still not sure what they used to replace Colbert at that point, though. As much as I've railed against Comedy Central for no longer doing original programming, a slew of their shows have just been bad - Carlos Mencia, The Chocolate News, that debate show with Lewis Black, etc. I think there best option is to either just have another Daily Show, with John Oliver or another correspondent as the new host, or to spin something off from The Colbert Report. People seem to respond well to that format at night, and presumably, their new show could be different enough from Stewart to still succeed.

The NBC fart logo is from here. Colbert is from here. Letterman's photo is on about 500 different sites as a stock image, and Kimmel and Affleck comes from some weird photo index site that I'm not going to link to.

Colbert rips into Rhode Island

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Skeletons in the Closet
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

Rhode Island is in the national news again, for our lovely governor's stance on burial rights for gay couples. Good times, good times!

Dear Comedy Central, stop sucking

[Right] An image from Let's Bowl, the best dispute-settling bowling game ever broadcast on cable television.

Once upon a time, I remember when Comedy Central didn't suck. To be fair, they still do have some great shows. South Park, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are all still awesome, and I am excited to check out more of Michael and Michael Have Issues, and Tosh.0.

But the rest of their shows and what they choose to show is severely lacking in originality or taste. For example, The Sarah Silverman Show varies wildly in quality; maybe I'm just tiring of her “I say offensive things!” schtick. There is still too much blue-collar comedy crap and iffy stand-up in general. I'll go months without seeing Mitch Hedburg or Zach Galifankis or Todd Barry.

However, there are two especially egregious things Comedy Central has indulged in lately – shitty movie selection and an inability to get creative with programming.

Speaking on the first point, I can do without Dane Cook's Employee of the Month being shown on weeknights. Employee of the Month is the type of dreck you convince yourself into renting from the local video store when you and your girlfriend want something on the background while you make out. Dane Cook is to college frat guys what Larry the Cable Guy is to rednecks. Whatever wit their acts originally possessed has been pimped out to relentless commercialism.

If you are Comedy Central, how are you not showing a bunch of classic, great comedies on loop? I'm not even talking about stuff like Duck Soup with Groucho Marx or Dr. Strangelove, which would be artsy and daring selections. I mean simple stuff like letting Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Stripes slip to AMC, not showing This Is Spinal Tap and Best In Show and Waiting for Guffman, and letting VH1 and MTV show a bastardized version of Wayne's World. I just rattled off seven awesome comedies, and I can't remember seeing any of them on Comedy Central, and all of them are old enough that the viewing rights probably aren't that expensive to procure.

Lastly, I wish Comedy Central would take some more risks with what they do chose in terms of original programming. They have tried the talk show format about 50 million times, and unless it is The Daily Show or run by a former Daily Show staffer, it inevitably fails. If you blinked, you might have missed the shows hosted by David Alan Grier, D.L. Hughley, Adam Carolla, Lewis Black and Colin Quinn.

Back in the day, Comedy Central would at least attempt more original programming. An example would be Let's Bowl, a show that seemingly only I loved. It featured bowling matches between amateurs to settle petty disputes with snappy and snarky MXC-style commentary. It predated Dodgeball and MXC and Ninja Warrior, so I feel like it was a little ahead of its time.

Once upon a time, Comedy Central took a chance on a show that just had two robots and a human lost up in space commenting on shitty movies – It was called Mystery Science Theatre 3000. And another time, they greenlit a show with very mature elementary school students that cussed a lot – South Park. And another time, they let a guy who had a very popular cult movie about weed have his own show with almost no oversight – Chappelle's Show. These risks seemed to pay off quite a bit.