Late night is a clip now

Late night used to be a time of day. Now it is a clip that performs well if the host looks mad. The rest of the hour — band, guest, a joke that needed a run-up — dies on the cutting room floor of someone else's phone.

That is not nothing. A good clip can still punch. It is also not a comedy show. If you only know these people from a feed, you do not know whether they are funny. You know whether they are extractable.

We will keep noting which hours are still hours and which ones are content farms with a desk. The distinction matters if you claim to cover entertainment as news.