Jay Leno is weighing in on the state of late-night comedy—and he’s not holding back.
In a candid interview with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, the 75-year-old former Tonight Show host criticized today’s late-night scene for becoming too politically slanted, just days after CBS announced the sudden cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the top-rated program in its time slot.
“I love political humor, don’t get me wrong,” Leno said, “but what happens is people cozy up too much to one side or the other. Nobody wants to be lectured.”
The legendary comedian, who helmed The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2014 (with a brief hiatus during the infamous Conan O’Brien transition), reflected on his own approach to topical humor. He said his goal was always to unify audiences, not divide them.
“Why shoot for half an audience?” Leno asked. “Why not try to get the whole? I don’t understand why you’d alienate one side. Or just don’t go there at all—just be funny.”
Leno said he used to take pride when his jokes triggered criticism from both sides of the political aisle. “If I got hate mail from Republicans and Democrats over the same joke, I knew I was doing it right,” he said. “That meant I was hitting a broad audience.”
His comments come amid growing speculation about the reasons behind The Late Show’s abrupt end on July 17, despite the show’s continued ratings dominance and fresh Emmy nomination. While CBS claimed the cancellation was “purely a financial decision” unrelated to performance or content, many pointed to Colbert’s recent criticism of CBS parent company Paramount and its high-profile financial donation to President Donald Trump’s future presidential library—a deal tied to Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance.
The move drew attention not just from Colbert’s fans, but also from President Trump himself, who took a public victory lap after the news broke.
On July 22, Trump posted on Truth Social:
“The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes, and, shortly thereafter, [Jimmy] Fallon will be gone. These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television.”
Trump also praised the decline of political comedy in general, suggesting he had a “major part” in its collapse.
Many of Colbert’s peers, including Fallon, Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, and Andy Cohen, rallied behind him following the cancellation. But even as they offered support, the political undertones of their shows remain a lightning rod—especially for critics like Leno.
Kimmel, who has long clashed with Trump, has made no secret of his refusal to tone down political commentary. On the Naked Lunch podcast in 2022, he admitted he was ready to walk away from ABC if the network ever tried to silence his Trump jokes.
“I said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, get someone else to host the show. I’m not going to stop just to keep viewers who don’t want to hear the truth,’” Kimmel recalled.
Leno, for his part, maintains that humor doesn’t have to come at the cost of unity. “You don’t have to pick a side to be funny,” he said. “You just have to be honest—and entertaining.”
