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Ultimately, though, that is pretty much the reason why these hosts are being cancelled. It's become clear to top execs since last november that Trump's supporters, even if they can't see them in their filter bubbles, are real people that exist and are not consuming their product. Late Night shows are supposed to be comfy, to everyone. Sure, the efforts they had done to be fairer since the election, on their own, wouldn't be enough to bring back Republicans, not for a few years at least. But when these media execs see one of their star hosts saying very un-comfy things about half the country, what's going through their mind is probably some variation on "No fucking wonder they want nothing to do with us!"
Those viewers aren't coming back. NFL football ratings bounced back after dropping the politics stuff, but that was because there was massive demand for the product and no real substitute.
Sure. Agreement with this is more, not less, market reason to cancel.
Media market analytics tends to go by national/regional demographics, not partisan demographics. Flat cost decisions (such as hiring) that might make sense if you view yourself in a 320 million market make a bit less sense if you're in a 'merely' 160 million market due to a political filter.
If the 160 lost market might be recovered, you fire the excess and bring in new help. But if the 160 market can't be recovered, you still fire the excess.
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I don't know, I think there's a demand for that kind of show, something that everyone could discuss together that isn't fiction, that reminds people that they are part of an actual nation with a shared culture, and not just participants in an economic opportunity zone.
Maybe it's just that I'm old enough to remember how it felt that TV was a shared experience rather than something everyone did separately and the younger generations have no interest in it.
How’s Red Eye on fox doing?
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