Late-night hosts less political than predecessors

A mere six months before the first vote is cast in Iowa, late night television is in the midst of a massive transition of power. The incoming generation of hosts is generally less political than the one it is replacing, a shift that could have repercussions far beyond the office water cooler.

Late-night shows act as both a “thermometer” and a “thermostat,” said Jon Macks, a Democratic campaign consultant who also spent 22 years writing jokes about politicians on both sides of the aisle on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” “They’re taking the temperature of the public, but ... they can also reset things a bit.”

Indeed, a 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that more Americans turned to “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show” and “The Tonight Show” than to national newspapers for campaign news.

That’s why political operatives from both parties have long kept a weather eye on latenight TV. Lee Atwater, President George H.W. Bush’s famously shrewd 1988 campaign manager, checked in with Carson’s monologues to see howthe candidates were faring with ordinary Americans. In 2000, Al Gore’s advisers referred to Darrell Hammond’s impression of him on “Saturday Night Live” to make him aware of how humorless and wooden he seemed to many voters.

“Late- night humor has become a part of campaign discourse,” said S. Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University who has studied latenight humor and politics. “It’s not just the news politicians have to worry about, it’s the jokes.”

That adds significance to the generational handover that began last year, when Jay Leno stepped down as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” A political junkie, Leno used his Average Joe perspective to make light of D.C. dysfunction, solidifying his ratings lead over Letterman in the Monica Lewinsky era.

His bipartisan sensibility — an exception to the rule in left-leaning late night, according to research by Lichter — made him a favorite of Republicans. Not so much his rival Letterman, who on CBS’ “Late Show” was a scathing critic of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.