The Changing Face of Late-Night TV

Say goodbye to classic late-night TV. Long gone are the days of a host, a desk and a microphone. Today, late night is a constant change of scenery, whether in the audience, on the street or just on the mainstage. With so much for audiences to choose from, late-night hosts are doing everything they can to ramp up their game.

So what exactly are they doing to ramp it up and keep viewers entertained? Let’s discuss …

Parodies and sketches
We have Jimmy Fallon to thank for this one. Hands down. After years of being on Saturday Night Live, the man lived and breathed sketch comedy, so it wasn't a surprise when we started to see some of this translate onto Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It all started with 7th Floor West which was a parody of MTV's The Hills. This later evolved into the very popular Jersey Floor and several other TV parodies. Actually, you could fill a book with everything Fallon has done on his show.

Conan O'Brien (also a former SNL-er) has had reoccurring sketches and skits far more clever than anything as simple as reading headlines. Anyone remember Amy Poehler as Andy Richter's little sister, Stacy? O'Brien has kept this up everywhere he's been, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien to The Tonight Show to Conan.

#Twitter, #Facebook, #YouTube
If you don't know how these three elements have completely revolutionized late-night TV, let me direct you to Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube compilation of parents telling their kids they ate their Halloween candy. It's completely hilarious and was an overnight hit ultimately resulting in similar videos.

Remember when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert organized the Rally to Restore Sanity and encouraged everyone to follow via Twitter and Facebook? That got them huge followings online. Not to mention, anyone ever notice how Fallon has a MacBook Pro on his desk in addition to the classic mic?

Hello, ladies!
Chelsea Handler is widely known as one of the first female faces of late-night TV. Her raunchy roundtables and almost-uncomfortable interviews draw in huge audiences and have gained her a cult following. 

Following-suit is comedy duo Nikki Glaser and Sara Schafer, whose show Nikki and Sara, was picked up by MTV to air as a once-a-week late-night talk show. They're still trying to feel out who they are on the show, but they're getting there and you're seeing tones of Fallon.

No lizards, please
Oh yeah, there's also all those guys that come on to talk about reptiles, which I’m not a fan of. Snakes are gross and disgusting creatures. Stick to the above points to keep those ratings up, folks.