Late-night television is the general term for television programs produced for broadcast during the late evening and overnight hours—most commonly shown after, if not in competition with, local late-evening newscasts; programs that have been showcased in the daypart historically (though not necessarily exclusively) encompassed a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show. Late-night shows predominantly cater to night owls, people suffering from insomnia, shift workers with irregular schedule assignments, younger male audiences and college students, along with spillover audiences through viewers of entertainment and news programs aired earlier in the evening.
In the United States, the late night slot primarily encompasses the "late fringe" daypart leading out of prime time (and typically encompassing the half-hour to 35-minute "late news" slot associated with local and, in some cases, network late-evening newscasts), usually running after 11:00 p.m. and through 2:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (ET/PT). An informal broader definition of the daypart includes the designated overnight graveyard slot (encompassing programs airing as late as 5:00 a.m. local time).
This article focuses on television programs, genres and other programming concepts common in American late night television, primarily focusing on programs typically shown on national broadcast and cable television networks and in syndication.
Talk shows
The late-night talk show format traces its roots in early television variety shows, a format that originated on radio and the dominant form of light entertainment during most of the old-time radio era, and in particular incorporates some elements tracing to the 1938–48 weekly NBC radio program The Pepsodent Show, which featured an opening segment in which host Bob Hope delivered rapid-fire, topical and often political observational humor. The first late-night television program was the 1950–51 NBC variety program Broadway Open House, which ended as a result of host Jerry Lester's decision to leave the show amid frustration with being upstaged by sidekick Virginia "Dagmar" Lewis, burnout from having to go through a large amount of material in a short time, and the lack of enough television sets in American households to make late night programming viable. The first televised late-night talk show was The Faye Emerson Show, a 15-minute program that aired on CBS (first on selected East Coast stations and then nationwide beginning in March 1950) from 1949 to 1952. Emerson's show was distinctive from her NBC competition in that she was more openly political (a precursor to the political humor that would become standard in late-night monologues in later decades); Emerson, an avowed Democrat, regularly interviewed political and intellectual figures on the program (one such interview featured Soviet leader Joseph Stalin), in addition to showcasing some vaudeville and variety acts.
Tonight Starring Steve Allen, the first iteration of The Tonight Show that debuted on NBC in September 1954, developed many modern talk show concepts including an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation segments, comedy bits, and musical performances, accompanied by the show's house band; it also incorporated concepts taken from the radio era, including a vocal group (Steve and Eydie, who went on to decades of success as music artists after leaving Tonight amid its short-lived 1957 reformatting as Tonight! America After Dark), something that later late-night shows would abandon. The expansion of television stations across the country, and households owning television sets helped Tonight to become a major success. CBS and ABC waited until the 1960s to wade into any major late-night programming efforts. ABC entered the arena in November 1964 with The Les Crane Show, which lasted until February 1965 in its original format; it was then retooled as ABC's Nightlife, which originally employed rotating guest hosts before bringing back Crane as host that June for what would be the final six months of the program's run. CBS joined the fray five years later in August 1969 with The Merv Griffin Show, which began seven years earlier as an NBC daytime program before returning in syndication (with some stations airing it opposite The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) in 1965; Griffin, whose show was mired in second place behind the dominant Carson, chose to reach an agreement with the network to end his contract early, sensing it would soon cancel the show, and signed a contract with Metromedia Producers Corporation to continue his program in syndication, where it lasted until 1986.
Popular shows within the late night talk show genre include The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC, 2014–present; the seventh iteration of the franchise that has aired since 1954), Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC, 2014–present; the fourth iteration of the franchise that has aired since 1982) and Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC, 2003–present). Famous former hosts include Johnny Carson of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; David Letterman of Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman (as well as the short-lived daytime David Letterman Show); Conan O'Brien of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and Conan; Jay Leno of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (who has taped more episodes than any other late night host); Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; James Corden of The Late Late Show with James Corden; Craig Ferguson of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson; Arsenio Hall of The Arsenio Hall Show; Tom Snyder of Tomorrow and The Late Late Show; Steve Allen, the father of the late night talk show and founder of Tonight (now known as The Tonight Show); Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett, early competitors with Carson; and Jack Paar, the man who followed Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show and who is responsible for setting the standards for the genre.
Networks typically produce two late night shows: one taped in New York City and one in Los Angeles. Most are taped late in the afternoon; the lone exception (as of May 2026) is Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which finishes taping about an hour before its initial broadcast in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. Similarly, during its 2015–26 run, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired live after events of major importance (such as the State of the Union address, party nomination conventions and presidential debates during election years, and selected major federal elections like the 2020 presidential election). The fact that the genre’s typical afternoon taping schedule limits accurate coverage of the latest 24-hour news cycle is sometimes the source of ironic humor or notable delays (for instance, the death of Michael Jackson, a frequent butt of late night jokes, on the afternoon of June 25, 2009 came after all but Jimmy Kimmel Live! had taped their shows, and as such, Kimmel was the only one to mention it that night).
Despite being more appointment-oriented shows, the late-night talk format had been enduring declining viewership and advertising revenue since the mid-2010s due to competition from streaming, making many of the shows increasingly expensive to produce because of declining profitability. In July 2025, CBS (which had struggled in late night until Letterman moved to the network in 1993) became the first of the Big Three networks to discontinue late-night talk programming, announcing it would end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (and its parent franchise) in May 2026, reportedly due to profit losses of up to $100 million in recent years. It sparked controversy, however, as it followed network parent Paramount Global's settlement of a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over an October 2024 60 Minutes interview of then-Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris amid concerns the Federal Communications Commission (chaired by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, which approved the deal three weeks later) might interfere in its merger with Skydance Media and came just days after Colbert—a longtime critic of Trump throughout the latter's political career—criticized the settlement on-air. (Trump has expressed distaste of jokes and critiques directed towards him on late-night comedy shows like Colbert, Kimmel and Saturday Night Live in the past, and has publicly mused about imposing punitive measures on broadcasters—including the revocation of licenses—because of such material, despite First Amendment protections applying to satire and political criticism.) As such, many of Trump's critics (including Democratic lawmakers like Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren) and the Writers Guild of America (who sent an investigative referral to the New York Attorney General's office regarding Paramount's motives for the decision) questioned whether the cancellation was politically rather than financially motivated.
Scheduling Except for a brief period between September 2009 and March 2010, the "Big Three television networks" (NBC, ABC and CBS) have all begun their late night programming at 11:35 p.m. Eastern Time (10:35 p.m. Central) each night. NBC became the first network to start its late night schedule at 11:35 (instead of 11:30 p.m.) in September 1991, in a bid to prevent affiliates from dropping or delaying The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in favor of lucrative syndicated programs; ABC followed suit in September 1992, followed by CBS upon the Late Show with David Lettermans debut in September 1993. Since June 1994, Fox, the fourth major U.S. network, airs only one day of late night programming—Saturday—starting at 11:00 p.m. ET, a half-hour to one hour after the end of prime time to allow most of its stations to air local late-evening newscasts (or syndicated programs on the few affiliates that do not air late-evening newscasts). ABC, CBS and NBC all begin their late night schedules with comedy and interview-based talk shows, though programming in the lead-out 12:35 a.m. ET slot differs on each network: only NBC airs an additional lead-out talk show (Late Night with Seth Meyers) in the slot, while ABC airs the newsmagazine Nightline following Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Since May 2026, however, CBS has maintained a time buy agreement with Allen Media Group Television to program the full two-hour timeslot, which previously featured traditional late-night talk shows in some capacity from January 1989 to September 1990 and from September 1993 to May 2026. In March 2025, CBS announced that it would cease offering first-run programming in the 12:35 timeslot—previously occupied by The Late Late Show from 1995 to 2023—once the comedic panel game show After Midnight (a reboot of the 2013–17 Comedy Central series @midnight that was cancelled after host Taylor Tomlinson decided to return to stand-up comedy full-time) ended its two-season run that June. CBS entered into an initial time buy with Allen to air a two-episode block of original and archived episodes of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen (which originated as a syndicated series in 2006) as a replacement for After Midnight in the Late Show lead-out slot starting in September 2025. That agreement would extend to the network’s 11:35 slot in March 2026, under an amended time-buy that saw Comics Unleashed replace The Late Show once the latter’s 33-year run ended that May, while the comedy game show Funny You Should Ask (which debuted in syndication in 2017, and also airing as a two-episode block) took over the 12:35 slot.