When people turn the television on to watch late night shows such as Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, or David Letterman they are looking to be entertained. In contrast people who turn on the news are looking for information on what happened during the day, or political events that are taking place. However, politics is no longer being covered only on the news, as many late night television show hosts are beginning to share their political beliefs using their show as a medium.

When looking at the general scope of types of television currently airing, two distinct categories can be made. The first category is entertainment, where viewers are looking to watch something that will be interesting. Scripted television shows fall into this category, along with late night comedy shows. The other category that television programing can fall into is informative. One example of this is documentaries that may air on television, but the bigger example is the news. Whether it be a show such as Good Morning America or the five o’clock local news, people who are turning on this programming are looking information on what happened during the day, or news about current political standings.

As late night comedy hosts begin to venture further into the realms of informing people on politics, their shows become less entertaining and start becoming more informative. This switch from being pure entertainment to more informative content will cause these shows to lose viewers. The people who regularly watch shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live are not looking for political news, but are instead looking for entertainment. The people who are looking for political news will already be watching news at the time the informative shows are on and therefore, the used to be humorous shows will begin losing viewers.

All of this being said, there is of course some leeway for the late night shows when the political information is portrayed in a humorous way. By making a joke out of whatever situation is happening in the political world the shows are still keeping their entertainment value. However, just like hearing the same joke over and over makes it less funny, the more political based jokes appearing in the shows the less entertaining it is. It is one thing for an occasional joke about politics to appear in an episode of Jimmy Kimmel, however as political jokes begin appearing more and more frequently it becomes less funny because it is expected.

Even if the political jokes would stay funny no matter how often they are used, some of the late night show hosts are not even portraying their political material as jokes and are instead flat out telling the American public what they should believe. While it is in no way these hosts place to tell people what to think, it also takes away from the purpose of their shows. The purpose of a comedy based television show is to entertain, not preach about political stand points.

One of the biggest examples of this blatant preaching of political beliefs was when Jimmy Kimmel told the heart breaking story of what happened to his child. When Kimmel talked of his son’s heart condition, it was a touching moment. Not only did Kimmel rally support for his son, but he also brought awareness to the disease that his son faces. This moment was touching and the delivery of this information can not be criticized. However, where Kimmel crosses the line, is when instead of bringing awareness to this horrible disease, it was turned into opinion based information on health care. Kimmel made the right decision in sharing about his son’s disease as it brought awareness that will help support all the victims, yet he never should have turned the moment into information on health care.

When it comes down to it, late night television hosts have the right to say whatever they want on their shows. While they have the right to include what they want, by adding content about politics, the purpose of the show is ruined. No longer would the late night shows be considered entertainment, or a way to escape the world one is living in for a while, but instead it would be information about politics and the host’s political opinion. Hopefully, as politics become more prevalent in late night shows, viewership will drop, and alert the producers of the late night shows that few people want to hear constant political jokes or testimonies.