Jimmy Kimmel begins to turn off his audience

Jimmy Kimmel, the former late-night funnyman, and current after-hours social justice warrior is starting to get pushback on social media from some of his former fans, according to the Washington Examiner. Kimmel, who has displayed a number of emotionally charged rants during his monologue on subjects ranging from health care to gun control, is also the subject of satire courtesy of the guerilla street artist known as Sabo. Late Night comedy is suffering a decline in viewership, partly due to other factors, but certainly, because the hard-edged political content has started to turn off audiences.

Kimmel begins to anger former fans

Kimmel recently triggered a number of people in his audience by referring to supporters of the 2nd Amendment as “crazies.” The late-night talk show host thus violated one of the cardinal rules of entertainment in that he insulted a significant portion of his fan base. People who were affronted by Kimmel made their unhappiness known on Twitter.

Sabo strikes again

In the meantime, the guerilla street artist known as Sabo deployed several of his posters around the Los Angeles area, near Kimmel’s home and the studio from which the show is broadcast. One poster showed a weeping Kimmel with the caption “Jimmy Kimmel is a Cry Baby.” Another showed Kimmel with the words “The Jimmy Kimmel Estrogen Hour.” Kimmel responded by having himself photographed on a bench where one of the posters had been deployed, extending a middle finger.

Ratings for late night are declining

The Washington Examiner notes that the late night viewership for CBS, NBC, and ABC combined numbered about eight million people. By contrast, Jay Leno, when he was still on the “Tonight Show” brought in six million pairs of eyes himself.

To be sure, a lot of millennials are ditching TV for more online entertainment.

However, the evidence suggests that late night comedians who are too overtly partisan political are turning off their audiences. Leno and Craig Ferguson tended to be equal opportunity in their mocking of politicians when they went political at all. Leno and Ferguson also told jokes and refrained from lectures or rants about issues.

They knew that their first job was to be entertaining.

Network executives, sooner or later, are going to start to worry about losing viewership. Ads are still sold on network TV shows based on the number of eyeballs that are turned toward the TV monitor. The more people who turn off late night shows for some other form of entertainment, the less the networks can afford the hefty salaries they pay for their hosts. Eventually, something will have to be done.