U.S. TV Networks Slash Late-Night Live Music as Artists Pivot to Digital Creators

Major U.S. broadcast networks have sharply curtailed live musical performances across late-night television, stripping the recording industry of one of its most reliable promotional stages and accelerating a shift toward digital platforms.

Following CBS’s decision to end musical programming on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” earlier this year and the unreplaced 2023 departure of James Corden’s “The Late Late Show,” network television slots for live bands have rapidly vanished. ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has scaled back live performances to twice a week, while NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” has significantly reduced musical bookings. NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” is now the sole late-night network program consistently offering live music performances.

Representatives for CBS, NBC, and ABC did not respond to requests for comment regarding the broadcast reductions.

The broadcast pullback comes as traditional network television confronts declining viewership and tighter production budgets, leaving independent record labels and emerging musicians with few high-reach outlets to promote new releases or national tours.

“Of course, they have to book all the biggest things in the world, but they also have things that they want to champion,” said Chloë Walsh, co-founder of music publicity firm The Oriel. She noted that while television appearances rarely generate an immediate spike in track sales, they serve as crucial industry signals for concert promoters and radio programmers. “It’s a showcase for touring. And that’s really where artists make their money.”

Historically, late-night television appearances served as critical inflection points for breaking artists. When Baltimore synth-pop group Future Islands performed on “Late Show with David Letterman” on March 3, 2014, following their signing to indie label 4AD Records, the viral television moment transformed the band’s touring prospective overnight.

“At the time that we played Letterman, we were in a transitory period for the band,” said bassist William Cashion, noting that management had cautioned the television spot might not move the needle. “All the festivals that initially turned us down all of a sudden wanted us to come play. Everything kind of shifted after that moment.”

With network television closing its doors, artists and publicists are increasingly turning to online media creators who are recreating long-form late-night performance spaces on digital platforms. Creator Julian Shapiro-Barnum, known for “Recess Therapy,” recently launched “Outside Tonight,” an outdoor YouTube late-night show that prioritizes live performances from independent acts, including indie rock soloist Annie DiRusso, rapper Erick the Architect, and experimentalist L’Rain.

“We know that the entertainment industry is hard to break into. And so, what’s been so cool about digital media is that it’s circumvented that,” Shapiro-Barnum said. “How can we do late night, but different?”

Indie pop group Beach Bunny performed on the premiere episode of “Outside Tonight” after previously leveraging a TikTok viral hit with their track “Prom Queen” into traditional network spots on Kimmel and Fallon.

“It seems like a lot of different aspects of the album cycle have kind of been replaced with short-form content,” said Beach Bunny lead singer Lili Trifilio. “And I think now a lot of the responsibility of advertising is falling on the artists to be their own late-night special on TikTok or whatever. I don’t think that these 30-second, one-minute self-made clips hold the same value.”

Other digital outlets, such as online trivia series “Track Star*,” have also begun integrating live music sets. Simultaneously, social media platforms continue to generate unexpected promotional spikes, such as singer-songwriter Gigi Perez breaking through with “Sailor Song,” Malcolm Todd landing a major label deal with Columbia Records through viral tracks, and Weezer’s 2010s track “Go Away,” featuring Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, resurfacing to top Spotify charts.