Kyle McCoy

A/E Editor

kzm266@psu.edu

On September 22nd seven late-night talk shows will team up to host the very first “Climate Night”. The event is designed to raise awareness of the climate change crisis and it will run through all seven shows. Each program on this day will focus exclusively on climate change and its prevention.The organizers of this event hope that it will help raise awareness of the issue while at the same time entertaining the audience.Each show will address the topic of climate change differently and the amount of time being focused on the issue will vary from show to show.The shows that will be participating in the event are The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on NBC, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” “The Late Late Show With James Corden” on CBS, “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” on TBS, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC and “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” on Comedy Central.

The event was organized by Steve Bodow who is no stranger to the world of late-night television having formerly served as executive producer on “The Daily show” for 13 years.In an interview with the New York Times, Bodows stated that he organized the event to coincide with Climate Week NYC which begins on monday the September 20th. In that same interview, he gave his rationale behind the idea stating “We’re all talking about it. We all need to be talking about it. What if these shows all talked about it at once? It makes a statement that they’re all willing to do this.” 

According to Bodow, getting all the shows together for the event was “surprisingly easy” and that “everyone really liked the concept and thought it was worth doing” Each show will be free to touch on the issue however they see fit as per Bodows request.

Bodow is not the only one raving about the event Comedian Samatha Bee has also spoken out in favor of the event.Bee who hosts the show “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” stated that the event was a great way to raise awareness of the issue. In regards to using comedy shows as a platform to inform the public about the issue Bee stated that “I do think that we, individually, each do a great job of breaking down stories in ways that are palatable. Comedy is a great delivery system for actual information.”

Not everyone is so enthusiastic about the event, however. One such individual would be Fox news Greg Gutfeld who criticized the event on his show, Gutfeld. Gutfeld claims that Late Night hosts should spend less time talking about climate change and more time talking about issues such as homelessness and mental health. He also stated that “these hosts aren’t doing this event because they care they are doing it to make themselves look good” Despite Gutfeld’s comments most reactions to the event have been mostly positive with some commentators calling it an “unprecedented television event.”Climate night will kick off on September 22nd starting at 10:30 PM ET.