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<\/a><\/p>\nNow, the late night comedians, they are hired by people who want that anti-Trump, anti-Republican, anti-conservative message on their networks. Les Moonves of CBS admitted that he didn\u2019t hire Colbert with ratings in mind<\/a>. He hired Colbert with buzz in mind. And they\u2019ll find a way to monetize it some other way. He\u2019s got 24 hours a day to balance his network. You know on Friday nights, 9 o\u2019clock, they run Blue Bloods<\/a> which is as patriotic and straight down the middle virtuous American TV show as you\u2019ll find on the air today, 9 o\u2019clock Central. It\u2019s 10 o\u2019clock Eastern on CBS.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: I want to go back to the caller\u2019s question \u2019cause this is actually, for me, as a powerful, influential member of the media — and one of the stellar members of the so-called broadcast community — a fascinating question in terms of the answer being informative. ‘Cause his point was, “Look, if the NFL is having problems because the audience is leaving, why doesn\u2019t the audience just leave the late-night shows which are totally anti-Trump and cause damage there?”<\/p>\n And the answer is interesting. It all has to do with how the NFL built its audience. And what the NFL\u2019s doing now is basically snubbing that audience. And it\u2019s the people playing the game who are snubbing the audience. And the people playing the game have no equity in it. They\u2019ve got nothing at stake. They\u2019re gonna get paid no matter what. They haven\u2019t invested a dime into anything that\u2019s equity or ownership based. They\u2019re employees, highly paid in most cases.<\/p>\n But they\u2019ve got no stake in it. Their average length of time playing is four years. Some of them make it 10, 15 outside. After that, they don\u2019t care. Not their problem. So they think they\u2019ve got the freedom to selfishly pursue things that have nothing to do with the National Football League. They\u2019re trying to take over something they don\u2019t own and use it for political purposes, which is driving the audience away. And it\u2019s up to the league and the owners to deal with that, sadly. Not the government.<\/p>\n Now, Trump can provide the pressure, he can provide the leadership, but the edict should not come from government over how employees behave where they work, except if they\u2019re federal. The late-night TV shows are entirely different. They have not built those audiences are pro-Republican politics, pro-conservative politics. These late-night TV shows freedom were originally comedy shows, and they were — for the most part — during the heyday of Johnny Carson, they were apolitical.<\/p>\n Well, those days are long gone.<\/p>\n The modern era of late-night comedy is not comedy, when you get right down to it. It is angry politics. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s Real Time with Bill Maher or if it\u2019s any other late-night show, those shows are hosted by people who are mad and they are enraged. And if it\u2019s not at Trump, it\u2019s at George W. Bush. Any Republican who\u2019s in power or any conservative anywhere in the media who\u2019s effective will become targets of these shows.<\/p>\n And they have built their audiences expecting that. So their audiences are not going to abandon them unless those hosts abandon the hatred. Those audiences are tuning in for what those hosts are providing. The people that watch Real Time or tune in these late-night shows have a certain expectation that they\u2019re gonna have their anger validated. ‘Cause I submit to you that left-wing comedy today is not funny. It\u2019s rooted in anger and rage — and, if I dare say, hatred — and they\u2019ve built their audiences on that basis.<\/p>\n So you thinking, “Well, I\u2019m not gonna watch”? They\u2019re happy. They not gonna bother them at all. They wish you would watch so that they could offend you, but the fact that you think you\u2019re hurting them by not watching? No. And there are enough people who have the similar amount of rage and hatred to make an audience significant enough that they can break even on these shows. You know, broadcasting\u2019s like any other business.<\/p>\n Every business has its loss leaders. You sell under retail to get people in the store hoping to flip them to more expensive things. Amazon does it on their website. Broadcasting has done it too. The Larry King show, the old Larry King show from midnight to six never had a prayer making any money. There aren\u2019t enough people up. It never had a prayer. But it wasn\u2019t supposed. The Larry King show was to get Mutual News on as many affiliates in the daytime as possible.<\/p>\n And the way it worked was if you wanted to carry the Larry King show midnight to six instead of having to hire your own schlub and pay him, well, you had to carry Mutual News during the daytime to get Larry King. King was a loss leader. There\u2019s all kinds of things. Now, in terms of controversy, CBS every night at 11:30 is full, left-wing anger, enraged hate on parade. But CBS looks at balancing their network not over 12 hours or 24 but rather during the week. And so they…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/650-101117-Colbert.jpg\")
Carson… I know one of the writers of the Johnny Carson show who was in contact with me frequently. He sends me jokes. But he sends them to me after he\u2019s used them, so I can\u2019t. But he makes the point that they purposeful steered away. They didn\u2019t want to offend anybody. They wanted everybody to laugh. Now, some jokes offend people, but they weren\u2019t on a mission to offend and anger any segment of the audience. They wanted the biggest audience they could get, and Carson got it.<\/p>\n