Polling has shown that viewers -- regardless of their political beliefs -- prefer apolitical late-night shows. 

A Dec. 16-19, 2020 Morning Consult survey found that, while the majority of adults (52 percent) support late-night hosts’ right to discuss politics, a nearly equal share said they prefer to watch shows that don’t wade into the latest news in Washington. Thirty-seven percent of adults, along with about a quarter of Democrats and half of Republicans, said jokes that don’t involve politics would make them more likely to tune into late-night programs, such as “The Late Show” or “The Tonight Show.” The survey has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said the void left by Trump’s exit might spark creativity and lead to new topics for these shows.

“This actually could be liberating for comedy,” Thompson said. “They could actually escape the incredible, gravitational pull of this monolithic story that they've been covering so strongly.”

While hosts like Meyers and Stephen Colbert devote significant portions of their shows to the day’s political news, two of late night’s more apolitical hosts -- Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel -- are the most favored by the public.

Fallon, who caused a stir during the 2016 campaign when he playfully ruffled then-guest Trump’s hair, was the most favored overall (53 percent) and among Republicans (38 percent), while Kimmel was regarded highly among Democrats (72 percent). While Kimmel avoids deep dives into legislative minutiae, he has become more political in recent years, speaking out on issues such as health care after his son was born with a congenital heart defect in 2017. 

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