Imagine telling people twenty years ago that two of the most important stories in political media would revolve around late night network talk shows.

 

It was already a dinosaur of a genre in 2006, largely trapped in amber since the late sixties. It had even reached the deconstruction phase which normally indicates the death knell. Somehow, though, the format has not only survived but has become more relevant than the journalistic institutions that were supposed to be the guardians of democracy. The shows still had silly sketches and often inane interviews, but Colbert and Kimmel rose to the moment, something that very few editors at the New York Times et al. could claim. 

Extraordinary television. 

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