by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
At the moment, Late Night TV is in flux. James Corden is leaving The Late Late Show. Mike Birbiglia had a star making turn replacing Jimmy Kimmel while he had COVID…and Stephen Colbert is out from COVID “until further notice?”
My fear, of course, is that Colbert has long COVID and he may be knocked out of commission long-term. If that happened, there would likely be a lot of chatter about him retiring and who his replacement might be.
The logical replacement for Colbert, should it come to that, would be his mentor Jon Stewart. But other names that might be thrown about would be Birbiglia and maybe even Trevor Noah.
Which brings up something interesting — Late Night TV is the one place at the moment where the traditional “center” has held. It’s a bunch of interchangeable white men doing their interchangeable white man thing. It definitely seems as though the average American wants a Johnny Carson clone on their TV when they’re just about to go to sleep.
Anyway. Everything is out of whack right now. Talk about a vibe shift!
