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Channels with Peter Kafka

The Future of Late Night TV, Jimmy Kimmel, and The First Amendment

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business News, News, Tv & Film, Technology

4.4585 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When’s the last time you stayed up to watch a late night TV monologue? Months? Years? Decades? I’m not sure, either. But I stayed up Tuesday night to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return. James Poniewozik, who covers TV for the New York Times, just caught up with it the next day on YouTube. Which underscores one of the odder parts of the Trump v. Kimmel fight - it revolves around a time slot and a format that has been on its way out for a long time. So how did late night TV become a flashpoint in a crucial First Amendment fight? And how long is it going to stick around? James is the perfect person for this discussion: Not only does he watch TV (or YouTube) for a living, he’s also become a professional Trump-watcher, because Trump is a TV character. (Trump and TV are the subject of James’ excellent 2019 book). But make no mistake: the threats he’s making — on his own and with the help of his regulators – are very real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:56.3

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1:04.7

From the Vox Media Podcast Network.

1:11.5

This is Chandals with Peter Kafka.

1:13.4

That is me.

1:14.1

I'm also the chief correspondent at Business Insider.

1:17.9

Obviously, you know what we're talking about today.

1:20.3

We're talking about the president of the United States and his regulators taking aim at Disney slash ABC and Jimmy Kimmel. You also know that Kimmel came back on the air

1:30.8

Tuesday night. You have probably seen a clip or two about it at this point. I've also written about

1:35.7

this story three times in the last week, so you're welcome to review those posts. The most recent one

1:41.4

tries again to spell out why this is not the same as, say, Tucker

1:45.6

Carlson losing his job at Fox. So what I wanted to do today is to talk to someone who can put

1:50.9

all of this in context, not just the politics, but the mechanics and economics of late-night TV.

1:57.6

And what late-night TV does and doesn't mean in a world where everyone watches clips

2:02.4

instead of shows. So I reached out to James Panoazik. He is the TV critic at the New York Times.

2:08.9

James is great to talk to about TV, obviously, but he's also become a Trump expert in the last

...

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