Late Night TV Hosts to Make United Return?

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And yes, that’s really David Letterman up there on the left. Jeez. “Late Night With Beardy McSantapants?” Wow. Anyway, Variety is reporting that some or all of the big network late night hosts could be back on the air in early January, perhaps at the same time. Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Craig Ferguson have all stayed off the air since the beginning of the ongoing Writers Guild strike in support of their joke-penners, even paying the staffs out of their own pockets. But with the shows in reruns, ratings are taking a nose-dive, and the hosts are getting antsy:

Nothing’s been officially decided, and nobody will comment. But … people familiar with the situation said several hosts are nearing the conclusion that it’s time to return. … So who will come back first? There’s some talk that the Big Four hosts may all return around the same time. While informal discussions between the NBC and CBS camps have continued via backchannels throughout the strike absolutely nothing like that has been agreed upon. Latenight insiders, however, believe Leno and O’Brien are most likely to return in early January, no matter what Letterman decides. NBC has to be concerned about the plunging ratings for both shows, which in recent weeks have lost nearly half their audience.

Not included in the “Big Four” is Carson Daly, whose terrible late night show returned to the air this week (maybe because no real writers are actually involved?) and was subjected to a (non-Guild-sanctioned) protest by writers who disrupted his studio audience. Ellen Degeneres has also faced criticism for only taking off a single day in support of the strike. However, writers for both Letterman and O’Brien have said they’d support their bosses’ decision to return.

I’m totally down with the strike, but what I wanna know is: when can I have my “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” back? The cutout picture of Stephen Colbert I’ve taped to my TV is starting to get a little yellow, and I need my Truthiness!!

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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