Jay Leno Rips Modern Late Night Hosts Over Hyper-Partisan Politics

Legendary late night talk show host Jay Leno is fed up with the current crop of late night television hosts over the obnoxious, one-sided political commentary that has plagued all major networks over the past decade.

The legendary host, who retired The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for two decades before retiring in 2014, recently sat down with David Trulio, the president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Leno, 75, shared his thoughts on why his loyal audience habitually tuned into his program as opposed to the current late night lineup, which has been defined by consistently declining ratings over the last several years.

“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 noted.

“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, adding, “And I go, ’Well, that’s good,’ That’s how you get a whole audience.”

Ultimately, Leno concluded that the embrace of hyper-partisan politics has pulled the genre far astray from what made it a staple for millions of American households until the 2010’s. “Now you have to be content with half the audience because you have [to] give your opinion,” he said.

Leno has previously touched on the effect of partisan politics on the late night talk show genre. In 2019, he told the Today show that while he loved his late night hosting gig when he was on the air, he does not “miss” his former position due to the current political climate.

“I don’t miss it. You know, everything now is, if people don’t like your politics, they — everyone has to know your politics,” Leno told the Today show. “When people see you as one-sided, it just makes it tough.”

“And plus, I did it when, you know, Clinton was horny and Bush was dumb, and it was just a little easier,” he continued.

“Now it’s all very serious. I’d just like to see a bit of civility come back to it, you know?” the legendary host added. “Because, you know, the theory when we did the show was you just watch the news, we’ll make fun of the news, and get your mind off the news. Well, now people just want to be on the news all the time. You just have one subject that’s the same topic every night, which makes it – makes it very hard. I mean, all the comics, Jimmy and Colbert and everybody else, it’s tough when that’s the only topic out there.”

Leno’s most recent comments come after CBS announced Stephen Colbert’s late night program was coming to an end this coming May. Not only will Colbert be out at the network, the program will be ending entirely after several decades on the air, with network executives blaming exuberant costs and declining traditional television viewership overall.

In 2022, a review conducted by Fox News found that the show featured at least 200 appearances by left-leaning journalists and media figures. As for “the right,” Colbert’s lone guest in the time period was Liz Cheney, a vehement Trump opponent who endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.