‘Late-night’ hosts get political to win viewers

NBC Olympics in UK UHD

LOS ANGELES, July 28, (RTRS): Who would line up in an NBC waiting room for hours as the clock ticks past midnight? Dozens of people, as it turns out, all coming to the network’s New York City headquarters in a bid to watch history being made.

The crowd hunkering down at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center headquarters on the night of July 22 expected to see the first live broadcast in the on-air tenure of the network’s wee-hours “Late Night” franchise. The idea was to get a view of Seth Meyers making fun of that evening’s Republican National Convention on live TV quickly after Donald Trump accepted the nomination - something David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon had never done during their time on the show. To make it happen, staffers rejiggered their routines, even bringing in extra cue-card writers so riffs could be readied for the host as quickly as the writers, watching the convention coverage live, could come up with them.

“The idea of getting so close to the source was irresistible,” says “Late Night” producer Mike Shoemaker.

Beneath the ripped-from-the-livestream humor, however, is something quite serious. The battle to win TV’s late-night wars has grown as fierce as the one brewing between Trump and Hillary Clinton. TV’s late-night crowd sees the time between the start of last week’s Republican convention and the end of this week’s Democratic event as a make-or-break period. With so many hosts tossing zingers, it’s getting harder to stand out.

“Every day you’re on, you have to give people a reason to come and watch you that’s different from your competition,” says Chris Licht, executive producer of CBS’ “Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”

And so TV’s wee-hours watchers have a surfeit of delights in July: two weeks of live shows from Colbert; one live “Late Night” on NBC during each convention week; two weeks of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” on the ground at the conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia; extra episodes of Bill Maher’s live “Real Time” on HBO; even an election-themed special from TBS’ Samantha Bee. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel dispatched a correspondent to the proceedings. Jimmy Fallon, the ratings champion of the period, stuck to his basic format, but made sure to lampoon Trump. Even “Saturday Night Live,” normally on summer hiatus, is getting in on the action, sending “Weekend Update” anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che for live post-midnight berths on MSNBC from each convention once each week.

“The ‘live from’ is a like a shot of adrenaline,” says Ira Berger, director of national broadcast buying at the Richards Group, a large independent ad agency based in Dallas. “The hope is that it brings some much-needed attention and new viewers, and those new viewers stay with the show post-convention.”

The networks have plenty of reason to test new ideas. CBS is eager to see Colbert strengthen his show’s ratings (and has seen spikes in its viewership between the ages of 18 and 49 during the first week of live shows). Licht, the former executive producer of “CBS This Morning,” was brought in in April to help Colbert, who was taking on too much responsibility behind the scenes. Meanwhile, NBC is pushing Meyers as a new force in political comedy. HBO live-streamed Maher on YouTube, an attempt to dangle his edgy commentary to a crowd that doesn’t subscribe to its pay-cable service, as the Time Warner-owned unit vies with Netflix and Amazon. And Comedy Central is making the case that Noah is finding his voice after inheriting the “Daily Show” job from Jon Stewart.

Indeed, Stewart’s shadow hangs over the entire circus. This is the first election in several cycles that has not had him at “The Daily Show” desk offering the pointed commentary that made him a mainstay among a certain generation of late-night watchers. It’s no surprise that Stewart’s appearances last week on CBS’ “Late Show,” along with Colbert’s revival of the bloviating commentator who thrilled a nation on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” made such a mark. Their voices have been sorely missed.

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LOS ANGELES: Owners of Ultra HDTVs who are also customers of Directv, Dish Network or Comcast are in luck: They’ll be the only people in the US able to watch NBC Olympics’ 83 hours of coverage from Rio in the vividly sharp format — with four times the resolution of regular HD.

But the UHD programming won’t be live: NBC Olympics’ 4K Ultra HD coverage will include footage from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies on a 2.5-hour delay, along with swimming, track and field, basketball and judo, each on a oneday delay, as well as video shot around Rio. The programming on the three pay-TV providers’ platforms will be available starting Aug 6, the day after the Opening Ceremony, through Aug 22, the day after the Games conclude.

AT&T’s Directv, the first US pay-TV provider to offer a dedicated 4K UHD channel, will make the Olympics programming in the format available to customers with the Ultimate programming package (or higher) with a Genie HD DVR model HR54 or later and a compatible 4K TVs (or a 4K TV connected to a 4K Genie Mini).