What Viewers Want

I think the point of this Times article, that a market for late-night talk and joke show driven by a host, just doesn't exist among people in my age group.  I've never particularly understood the appeal of the format anyway--it always seemed like something that existed because there wasn't enough programming to fill the available time slots.  Now that Hulu exists, I can find something I like even when there isn't one of those delightfully interminable House re-runs that one of the sources in the story alludes to.  And now that Nielsen's going to start counting online viewing, it seems like a lot more late-night content will be much more financially viable than such shows would have been when they had to pull in consistent audiences at unusual hours.