Hillary Clinton’s crucial primary victories in Ohio and Texas were preceded by significant exposure and appearances on two of late night’s biggest TV shows: Saturday Night Live (“SNL”) and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. According to Dan McGinn, CEO of McGinn MS&L, communicators often overlook, at their own peril, the importance of late-night television. His observations follow:
It’s become well-accepted that television, at least in its current form, is declining in importance. After all, ratings for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, and SNL have generally been in a long, slow decline for many years. So who could blame communicators who view late-night as a losing proposition for their brands?
Not so fast. In sharp contrast to morning shows, which have seen ratings declines among younger demographics in recent years, late-night is becoming more influential, and not in ways you might expect. Viewership, which had long been stagnant at best, is actually up over this time last year – and that’s coming off a three-month writer’s strike that left most shows dark. Meanwhile, cable funny men Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have seen their ratings increase month-to-month among the critical 18-35 demographic, a trend which will only continue as the political season heats up.
This increase in viewership doesn’t even take into account the long tail of viral video. Late-night formats – consisting of 4-5 minute interviews and skits – are easily broken up and dispersed to YouTube and other video sharing sites, which have effectively extended late-night’s reach well beyond that box in the living room. Jon Stewart’s top-five most-watched clips on TheDailyShow.com have garnered 1.3 million hits this year alone with untold hundreds of thousands more views on sites like YouTube. More than a few recent viral phenomena have originated from late-night TV: comedienne Sarah Silverman’s Matt Damon clip originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live, has been viewed over 12 million times on YouTube, a figure exponentially higher than Kimmel’s nightly audience – and subsequent responses from the show have had similar success. Stewart, Colbert, and Conan O’Brien’s recent “feud”, where the three hosts were guests on each others’ shows, had extended viral legs as well: in addition to millions of views on YouTube, the video was on the front page of Digg.com, a site that allows users to submit and vote for their favorite news articles and video clips, for hours as a “most popular” item.
The less-serious confines of late-night often are a boon to candidates with perception issues. Clinton, who is often maligned for a seemingly wooden public persona, is much more charming in an interview setting with someone like Stewart. And Mike Huckabee, who in the fall was seen as a niche candidate, saw his appeal boost significantly after appearances on The Colbert Report and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
In an age where viewers, especially key younger demographics, are being saturated by information from a variety of outlets and perspectives, it’s clear that the American ritual of late-night television is finding new ways to adapt and thrive.