Does your country have late-night talk shows? How popular are they?

[u/Competitive_Waltz704]

I have no idea if these kinds of programs exist in other countries, let alone how popular they are.

In Spain, we have two main ones: 'El Hormiguero' and 'La Revuelta'. The former is the older and more established of the two, while the latter is a more recent addition, starting out as a more niche and less casual alternative, though right now both are really "family-oriented" shows.

Both programs have a similar structure: they interview a popular guest, which is the main part of the show, and then mix this with comedy sketches, science experiments, and so on.

[u/Youngfolk21]

Yes in Ireland we have the "the late late show, oldest chat show in the world. It's on every Friday night. It's a national institution.

It's an odd one. Cus the guest could be a sports star, some American star who's here for a premiere and then a woman who has written a book about child sex abuse. (Seriously) Now these are all individual interviews! 

It had topics that got the people of Ireland talking. For example, the then host Gay Byrne held up a condom in the 80s when there was a discussion about safe sex. First time shown on Irish television. For conservative Catholic Ireland, this is huge. 

[u/Sublime99 → u/Youngfolk21]

Worth noting Contraceptives only became legal in Ireland in 1980, 7 years before Gaybo pulled out a condom on the Late late show.

[u/QBaseX → u/Youngfolk21]

Furthermore, once a year, in the run-up to Christmas, they do a special episode called The Late Late Toy Show. For some reason, this is a really big deal. Everyone watches the Toy Show, apparently. (Except me. I've never seen it. I don't own a television.)

[u/crucible]

There’s “The Graham Norton Show” in the UK. However it only runs for a few months of the year, maybe 2 series or seasons a year.

The big difference with Graham’s show is all the guests are on the sofa at the same time so you get Hollywood megastars sharing the episode with a British comedian or sports star,

Channel 4 have a show called “The Last Leg” which morphed into a political / current affairs show after the 2012 London Paralympics. I think it gets a series or two a year still.

There have been various attempts to copy things like “The Tonight Show” from the USA, but the format hasn’t really worked even when it’s just a weekly episode.

[u/Oghamstoner → u/crucible]

I prefer Graham Norton to the American style shows because it becomes more about the (often well oiled) guests interacting with each other than with the host.

[u/crucible → u/Oghamstoner]

Absolutely! Graham sometimes lets the guests direct the conversation, too.

[u/Playful-Rope1590 → u/crucible]

There used to be 2 series per year, one during spring and one during autumn. However he seems to have slowed down tempo and now only has one autumn series per year. Shame because he has the best talk show around and there is so much more to promote in May than in October

[u/SirJoePininfarina → u/crucible]

The Graham Norton Show is a great format and I think if US late night talk shows are to survive, it will be one they’ll copy on their own ways (much like John Mullaney has) on streaming services with no sponsors, censorship or corporate parents to mollify.

But I do wish the BBC would commission another talk show that could take place in Graham Norton’s off-season.

[u/Slobberinho]

Boy.

There's a plethora of talk shows. Most follow the format of a table discussion on several topics, intertwined with interviews, and funny videos/light entertainment. Not all of them late at night.

There's Eva, Carrie op Vrijdag, Café Kockelmann, RTL Tonight, Pauw & De Wit, Tijd voor Max. There's the intellectual Buitenhof and the 'football cantine' of Vandaag Inside. And Lubach, which is more of a satirical news show akin to The Daily Show or Last Week Tonight.

I'm probably forgetting one or two.

[u/thanatica → u/Slobberinho]

Thanks for reminding me why the last time I had my TV on was in 2019 to see if it still worked after having been powered off for 5 years.

I might as well get rid of it.

[u/Masseyrati80]

There have ben some.

Some have tried to copy paste the American style too accurately, resulting in rhethorics that just don't seem to fit Finland (overly loud presentation, the host hovering somewhere between a regular host and a standup comedian, highlighting the audience's laughter etc.).

Different types of quiz shows, especially ones where celebrities try to guess or recognize which current event a picture or quote refers to, have been much more popular over the years.

[u/disneyvillain → u/Masseyrati80]

As for American ones, Conan O'Brien's show was huge about 20 years ago, but it fizzled out after he left Late Night. I think his later shows were shown sporadically, but they never became as popular as Late Night had been.

[u/snajk138]

I honestly don't know. I gave up linear TV like at least fifteen years ago. We had shows when I was younger, like trying to copy Letterman or Leno, usually worse, though I don't think we had a show that was on every weekday.

[u/Sublime99 → u/snajk138]

I know only about Carina Bergfeldt, because it comes on after På Spåret. on fridays in Autumn Pretty dry and boring though IMO.

[u/snajk138 → u/Sublime99]

"Sen kväll med Luuk" was pretty good, looking it up that ended in 2004. That's the last one I remember watching at all.

[u/Playful-Rope1590 → u/snajk138]

We had Skavlan too. But that was more serious show. Which made it less fun to watch

[u/TheGoldenCowTV → u/snajk138]

Didn't David Hasselhoff used have a talk show in Sweden? I never watched it but sometimes I get clips from it on YouTube and it feels like a fever dream

[u/snajk138 → u/TheGoldenCowTV]

It appears so, I never saw it though. 

[u/acke → u/TheGoldenCowTV]

He did, and it was quite funny actually. He interviewed Swedish celebrities but since he seldom knew who they were it went quite awkward from time to time since the viewers and audience in the studio absolutely knew who the guest were.

[u/Drejan74 → u/acke]

Famous TV moment when Skavlan (on his show) made Hasselhoff ask Åsa Waldau what she was famous for.

[u/Pumuckl4Life]

Austria:

There is one called "Willkommen Österreich" but it only airs once a week. It is hosted by 2 comedians who were already pretty popular before they started this show. It has the classic late night format of the US (monologue, random fun stuff and then interviews with 2 famous people. Also a band)

The major difference compared to, say, Colbert is the overall appearance of the show and the studio. It looks way more small budget than US shows. Smaller studio, small stage, etc. It's been going for >10 years so it's quite successful. Here's a video (you may know the guest: former F1 driver Niki Lauda): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPl-DuiyIko

Germany: The format has been tried but never really caught on with 2 very notable exceptions (both discontinued by now):

Harald Schmidt: Almost a 1:1 copy of US-late night shows. Even the studio and the stage looked like US shows. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IozUV2ilYME

Stefan Raab: Studio looked a bit different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dVXINaIgSI

[u/TheFoxer1]

Yes.

However, I don‘t think any of them are funny or entertaining.

There‘s Willkommen Österreich, translating to „Welcome Austria“. It describes itself as being provocative, employing dark humor and being not politically correct.

It actually is two hosts trading the mildest jokes between them and then interviewing celebrities no one knows and acting as if they‘re all friends, with everyone on the show thinking they‘re gods gift to comedy.

There‘s also an Austrian version of infotainment, mostly about stories about what goes wrong in politics, which could have potential if its host had just a little bit more energy than a dead body.

Overall, I wouldn’t actually recommend any Austrian late night television. I wouldn‘t recommend most Austrian television shows, actually.

[u/rotviolett → u/TheFoxer1]

oh I do like watching it "Maschek" is always worth it ^{^}

Of course "Dorfers Donnerstalk" was maybe even better, or"Phettbergs Nette Leit Show" - but those are older

[u/kielu]

It amuses me when people ask about tv. The last time I switched on the tv must have been over 10 years ago.

[u/CeleTheRef]

In Italy the most iconic was the Maurizio Costanzo Show which ran from 1982 to 2009 and then from 2015 to 2022, until the host's death. Officially the show ended on 20th February 2024 with a final celebratory episode.
It was set in a theatre and featured a piano player, later replaced by a full band. Pretty much anybody who was a celebrity went there at some point.

It had a Spanish version in the 90s, titled Hablando Se Entiende La Gente

A current popular one is Porta a Porta (since 1996) hosted by Bruno Vespa. This is where politicians win or lose elections (the program has been nicknamed "The State's third chamber"). When the show is not about politics, it becomes rather interesting.

Another is Sottovoce (since 1988 but has changed title a few times) hosted by Gigi Marzullo. It's a VERY late show, normally the last program on the RAI 1 daily schedule. No frills, no jokes, just the host and the guest. Marzullo is famous for his philosophical and sometimes surreal questions like "Is life a dream or dreaming makes life better?". The last question is always "Make yourself a question and give yourself an answer".

An Italian edition of El Hormiguero was in the work since 2009 but never happened so far. Wikipedia lists it for 2025 but no announcements for now.

[u/Grouchy_Fan_2236]

Not anymore.

Starting from the '80s up until the early 2000s it was a very popular genre and although the biggest show still exists, it slipped into irrelevance. The part of the audience that was looking for the humour got cannibalized by the stand-up comedy scene, while the audience that was looking for culture & public life turned towards internet communities with much broader coverage.

I think the majority remembers the golden age of late-night shows fondly - it was a great thing, but I doubt anybody would watch them today. Politics is such an unavoidable topic on a late night show that sooner or later either side would get offended. Just inviting a certain list of guests is enough to run into a cancel culture resistance from either side.

[u/cieniu_gd]

There were late night talk shows in the 90s, but they became less and less popular over the years. Right now, many ,  many Polish people don't have tv at all. 

[u/JakeCheese1996]

Yes, we have. Hardly ever watched them (too late and I am usually watching some streaming service) The programming rotates between the various content providers (broadcast licenses) and they discuss the daily events (political and non political)

[u/khajiitidanceparty]

I think there's one or two? I saw one recently, and it was kind of sad. The guests were practically unknown, and the funny part was just reading jokes from the internet.

[u/ErebusXVII]

There were probably more attempts, but I recall only one late night talk show. It flopped quickly, despite popular host and essentially copypasting verified US format.

Unsuprisingly, not many people watch television on midnight, and even less people are interested in watching a talkshow at midnight.

[u/Captain_Grammaticus]

We sometimes have one that runs for a few episodes, or even a few years. But we only have a small handful of comedians to cycle through, and satire on Swiss public TV must be "balanced", so sometimes there is none.

[u/IrishFlukey]

The Late Late Show has been mentioned already for Ireland. There are others. One interesting one is hosted by an Irish comedian, Tommy Tiernan. It is a chat show, not a comedy. What makes it interesting is that he does not know who the guests are until they are introduced by the announcer. Sometimes it is a well-known celebrity and sometimes it is someone who is not well-known, but is interesting in some way. It could be a hobby that they have, a special achievement they have accomplished, an unusual line of work or various other things. In those cases Tommy will ask them about themselves and the guest will tell him. As he doesn't know who the guests are going to be, he doesn't have a list of specific questions to ask, as on other shows. So we don't know how the interview will go. At times he can be quite blunt in his style and can sometimes get guests talking openly about serious or personal issues and opinions.

[u/Need_For_Speed73]

We used to have the "Maurizio Costanzo Show" which was a staple in the 80s and 90s. Then the guy got old and retired (now's even dead) and I guess there's nothing comparing to that, because TV in general has lost a lot of viewers and most of the remaining ones are old and so don't watch it late at night.

[u/metalfest]

It is a virtually non-existent scene here in Latvia. There have been a couple attempts now about a decade ago, one of them was fairly successful as in it ran for a couple years and it was kind of like the style i've seen on youtube clips - local celebrities, sometimes promoting some of their stuff, host from a comedy background, live band and viewers. But I believe it died out during the pandemic and never returned. Also, I'm not even entirely sure it ran on any popular TV at some point, maybe just some streaming networks.

One other similar show ran for no more than a year about 10 years ago, and there's one "late night show" on a more obscure TV that's basically just the host going over daily news with a tiny sprinkle of humoristic speech, so doesn't really count.

Other than that don't know of any, even obscure show, and they have barely been a thing in the past.

[u/Alarow]

They've attempted american-style talk shows here but they failed every single time, it's not a very popular format