The future of late-night talk shows has been in the spotlight over the past few years, with actor Vince Vaughn giving his two cents on the matter. In a recent podcast appearance, he reveals late-night shows have gotten less funny due to a political agenda.
TheWedding Crashersstar appeared on an episode of Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, where the conversation was geared toward comedy. Vaughn spoke about comedy being about the ability to make fun of yourself, and how stand-ups were given more access to be produced by studios due to it being more the responsibility of the comedian.
He compares that stand-up specials had more leeway with their comedy than a studio-produced film, where executives don’t want to offend anyone. Von chimes in that it’s one of the reasons why late-night shows have “tanked” in recent years, and their bit often being about “white rednecks.”
“They never get it right,” said Vaughn. “I think that talk shows, to a large part, became really agenda-based.”
The actor adds that podcasts have gained momentum with less production for being more “authentic” than late-night shows. Vaughn continued by saying that late-night shows “were going to [evangelize] people to what they thought. You know what I mean? And so people just rejected it because it didn’t feel authentic. It felt like they had an agenda.”
Related: Zendaya Calls This No.1 Chart-Topping 1995 Track the Best Wedding Dance Floor Song
As a result, Vaughn says that late-night shows have “stopped being funny” and instead feel like he’s in a “class I didn’t want to take” and is “getting scolded.” Vaughn then relates it to fans being more open to stand-up performances due to their public atmosphere and wanting to listen to a podcast for its authenticity.
While Vaughn doesn’t name-drop any late-night hosts, one can speculate that he’s speaking in relation to Jimmy Kimmeland Stephen Colbert. Both hosts have faced backlash for being outspoken against Donald Trump during his first and second presidential terms.
Kimmel faced being taken off the air after a comment made following the death of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. Colbert is set to exit his CBS program this May, with Conan O’Brien having realized the shift in late-night after leaving his own show.
This story was originally published by Parade on Mar 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
