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Hello everyone, and welcome back to America Under the Microscope, advanced episode. Hi, Lulu.

Hi, James.

So we're gonna continue our talk about late night talk shows, and I want to know what talk shows do you like?

I've been watching the Daily Show.

I've watched a lot of Daily Show, but not so much with the new host.

Trevor Noah?

Yeah.

I mean, I like Trevor Noah. But I started watching the Daily Show when John Stewart was still the host.

I remember watching the Daily Show when I was still in university, a long time ago.

What attracts you to… for example the Daily Show.

What I liked about the Daily Show is because it was different than other late night talk shows, yet and also, Stephen Colbert’s previous show, The Colbert Report.

Oh, I love Colbert Report.

Because they were literally fake news. So it was kind of poking fun of like the Cable News programs. So they were just doing things very differently; and also their interviews that they did. They interviewed people that you wouldn't see on the regular talk shows because they interviewed like scientists, writers that you would not normally think of…

One thing that always shocks me about the Daily Shows is like some of the interviews these people they look legit, you think are they just playing alone with this whole comic act?

I think sometimes they were.

Or do they actually think this is a serious interview?

Most of them are aware that it's a comic act, but the hosts were pretty good at like jesting based on the guest that they had there. So they know some can be more playful or others play a more straight.

Yeah, but I mean, I'm not saying it's scripted, but they've definitely talked to these people before. It's not like live interview. One thing that always gets to me is that sometimes people get really offended by like the Daily Show. And then they're like this is just fake. This is not true.

Well, dah, this is like we're comedians. It's not a news program.

I think this is very important to see things like the Daily Show as just satirical comedy. There's satirical about absolutely everything, to not take it seriously. This is one thing I think that… personally I think it's the ability to take a joke, you don't have to agree with them, right?

And that's the thing. What I like about some of these shows especially like the Daily Show is that I like the sort of the comedy timing, a lot of the hosts and also the co-hosts on this show they've got perfect comedy timing, and their own different style.

They're all comedians and they're all have practicing it for years and getting on the Daily Show like if you're a comedian and get on the daily shows. You're really an upcoming comic.

I do watch things like Fallon and Kimmel sometimes, but honestly for me personally that is a little bit too family friendly for my taste.

Yeah, they're… the big ones like Fallon and Kimmel, they're trying mass appeal, they're trying to reach out to be… the general public. I mean Colbert is a little bit different. He does bit more satire, so it kind of misses with some of the population.

He's actually involved in politics, right? Colbert?

Partially. I mean, he's jokingly run things, um, but he is known to be a bit more political than the other hosts.

Yeah. But a little bit of a disclaimer or reminder to our audience, whatever we're saying, we're not necessarily saying we support whoever’s point of view, it’s just that we enjoy the format of the show and the comic value of it.

But coming back to, you were saying to general audience, it seems like if you watch earlier, let's say earlier TV shows in America, you still hear a lot of cultural reference to these late-night shows, but nowadays it's getting less and less. Does that mean these late-night shows are not as popular as before?

They are not. A lot of people feel that the American talk show is kind of an outdated format in this modern world. Because when these talk shows came to be, it was TV your media, but now we have the internet. We have services like YouTube. We have subscription-based TV like Netflix.

Nobody watches TV anymore.

Nobody watches like standard TV anymore. So a lot of the shows they've adapted, this is one of the reasons why you can get so many of the clips on Chinese social media, is because the shows put the clips online on purpose. Because one of the ways they know popularity is not so much of how many people watch it live on TV, is the next days how many views do they have on the clips for on YouTube.

Exactly, the traffic.

Yeah, the traffic. And this honestly benefits the fans because people will watch one part of Fallon show, one part of Colbert show, one part of Kimmel show and they can pick and choose the parts they like and this actually… the shows like “we're getting a lot of traction on this area”.

So it's more just short skits now, clips. It's not so much as a routine back in TV age or TV time.

Right.

It was kind of a routine you go to bed before falling asleep in your bed watching the late-night show.

That's not really the case anymore.

And it's perhaps also because obviously it's a standardized production. So it always follows like you said a format. So people felt maybe this is getting old.

The stale format. And this also leads to like what's going on now. Because both you and I said we like to watch the Daily Show, which the Daily Show is a late night talk show, but it's quite different from the older styles. It's shorter, it's evolving. So they're poking fun of like news programs and stuff. And so these kinds of newer, more evolved modern talk shows tend to be a lot more popular, at least with younger audiences.

Really now is adapt or die, with all the traditional conventional media. They have to adapt.

I think some of the TV programming in America isn't adapting fast enough. That's why we still get a lot of these more traditional comedies on TV, they don't do very well.

But you also have to consider you do have a large, let's say aging population as well. They probably want to go for the more old-fashioned nostalgic way of looking at things.

There is like we have a thing like one of our TV channels CBS and we kind of consider CBS the old person channel because they do have a lot of engagement from older people watching the shows on that channel.

Find your audience, really. You know, sometimes, like me, if you watch more than one talk shows and you see these hosts and you think, sometimes they talk about each other, are they actual friends? And then you actually do see them, the clips of them bantering.

Right. The current generation, yes, they are friends. A lot of them have worked together in the past. They have gone through the comedy circuits together.

So like Fallon, Kimmel, this lot.

So however, this is not always been the case. Previous generation of famous comics like Jay Leno and David Letterman hated each other.

Because they had to fight for the rating.

Not just that. They were promised same jobs and then corporate politicking, screwed them over on who got what, and then so they're really bitter and we consider this whole time the Late-Night Wars.

WOW, there's a name for it?

There's a name for it. They were fighting for viewers. Just a bunch of things that they didn't get along. Nowadays, it's a lot different. However, not all of American talk show hosts have a great reputation.

Yeah, this is actually the next thing that I want to talk to you about, it’s the persona, our idea we also call it persona. 人设. Once you have this persona, if you are too far away from this persona in your real life becomes a huge scandal. Think about Ellen.

Yeah, Ellen. I’m actually surprised she still has a show.

Yeah. For those of you who don't know the scandal. It's basically… the whole scandal is Ellen is very mean to everyone, and to all of her employees. However her persona is supposed to be so relatable, so nice, and kind to everyone.

Far from the truth.

I think this is… people do hold these, especially if you watched them regularly, you sort of think of them as your friend on TV, especially a lot of them, they adopt a very approachable style. And then it is almost like finding out your longtime friend is actually a nasty person.

It's almost as if TV is not real.

Too bad that we sometimes just get sucked into it and don't realize it.

You know, but that is the case.

It always comes down to what kind of persona that you want to assume, right? In the beginning you always have two picks. You can go with the really lovable persona. But then if you don't live up to that you are…

It can bite in the end.

But then you can always go with the… really the villain persona but then it takes you much longer to become popular.

I would agree. You can always try to be just being yourself and be true to yourself. But it is Hollywood.

Okay. So that ends our little talk about Talk Shows. Share with us in the comment what kind of talk shows you like, what are your favorite and least favorite TV hosts both in China and in other countries? Thank you, James for coming to the show.

Thank you for having me, Lulu. Thank you for listening everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.