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The pubs with best playgrounds & soft plays across the UK mapped – featuring zip wires, petting zoos and free kids meals

Scottish Sun

2 hours ago

Scottish Sun

The pubs with best playgrounds & soft plays across the UK mapped – featuring zip wires, petting zoos and free kids meals

See our interactive map of the best pub gardens across the UK for your little ones this summer holidays - plus there's a theme for everyone from tractor-mad toddlers to dino-loving kids FUN DAY The pubs with best playgrounds & soft plays across the UK mapped – featuring zip wires, petting zoos and free kids meals Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IF the kids are happy, the parents are too. And nowhere is that truer than the magical unicorn that is a pub with a playground attached. Across the country, some kind-hearted landlords have given as much thought to swings and slides as they have to their beer kegs - giving mums and dads some much-needed peace and quiet to enjoy a pint. 7 Enjoy a craft beer at Timber Lodge in East London's Stratford, on the edge of the fantastic Tumbling Bay playground Credit: Alamy 7 Kids can play on adapted tractors at The Vicarage, in Cranage, while parents relax Credit: Facebook 7 The indoor play area at Cedar Tree Farm, Cardiff, is great for little ones and for rainy days Credit: Cedar Tree If you're dreaming of sunny afternoons at the pub, free from cries of "I'm bored!", we have put together a guide to the ultimate family-friendly pubs with playgrounds across the UK this summer. From thrilling zip wires and petting zoos to soft-play and pirate ships, these spots offer endless fun for the kids... NORTH The Saracens Head, Warburton. Jurassic Park? More like Jurassic Larks at The Saracens Head. Your little dinosaur hunters will have a roar-some time in their onsite soft play barn, Kiddisaurus (subject to an entry fee). For the grown-ups, there's a large, lawned beer garden with an abundance of shaded areas, outside seating and lots of space for older children to play. The double treehouse-style play area features a slide, a climbing wall and spring riders. Paddock Lane, Warburton, WA13 9TH The Airport Pub, Heald Green Situated just fifty feet from the runway at Manchester Airport, this family-friendly pub is ideal for both grown-up plane spotters – and kids who love to watch aeroplanes take off and land. There's even a plane-themed play area with slides, tunnels, climbing frame and ropes. The Airport, Ringway Road, Heald Green, M22 5WH New seafront playground with unreal view and incredible theme opens minutes from busy city The Blue Bell, Smallwood If your kids think they're kings and queens of the castle, they'll have a royal ball at The Blue Bell. Just a couple of miles off the M6, the tiny Cheshire village of Smallwood feels like it could be from another time, especially when you discover the unique, gigantic wooden play fort in The Blue Bell's swish beer garden. Go on a Monday, and the kids can eat free with an adult meal. The Blue Bell, Spen Green, Sandbach, CW11 2XA The Vicarage, Cranage Clarkson Farm fans rejoice – at The Vicarage in Cranage, Cheshire, kids can clamber onboard Travis the Tractor, an orange vintage tractor. There's also a wooden playhouse, climbing frame, a slide, and swings in the pub's playground, which sits on the banks of the River Dane overlooking the stunning Cheshire countryside. Every Monday-Wednesday 4pm-7pm, for every adult main meal, enjoy a kids' main meal for free. Knutsford Road, Holmes Chapel, CW4 8EF The Beehive, Tyne and Wear In view of St. Mary's Island and the golden Longsands of Whitley Bay, this Grade II-listed pub was built in the 18th Century. But wander round the back, and you'll find a sneaky entrance under the archway of bushes into the secret garden! A fully enclosed space with a wooden playground, surrounded by picnic benches where parents can supervise nearby. You'll even hear music playing through hidden speakers around the garden. Hartley Lane, Earsdon, Whitley Bay. NE25 0SZ The Little Mill, Rowarth Fancy a paddle? Grade II-listed country pub The Little Mill has a shallow stream running through its playground, ideal for splashing about in on a hot summer's day. There's also a huge slide that even big kids will love, and the pub keeps pygmy goats, chickens, rabbits and a large pond with Koi carp and goldfish. The Little Mill, Hollinsmoor Rd, Rowarth, High Peak SK22 1EB The Black Swan, Hollins Green A beautiful pub and hotel in the picturesque village of Hollins Green, The Black Swan has a fabulous menu of British classics. After a slap-up meal, head to the gardens, where you'll find a duck pond, zip wire and spider-web climbing ropes. 550 Manchester Road, Hollins Green, WA3 6LA 7 The friendly goats at Little Mill, Rowarth, always want to come out and play Credit: Facebook 7 The Old Neptune Pub on the Beach, Whitstable, Kent, has the 'natural playground' that is the beach, right outside for kids to play while the grown-ups relax Credit: Alamy Puss In Boots, Offerton This Stockport pub boasts a big outdoor play area with cute, colourful wooden climbing frames and balancing beams. It also has a bouncy, foam floor, so little ones won't get hurt if they fall. 147 Nangreave Road, Offerton, Stockport, SK2 6DG The Beach, Rochdale Found on the edge of Hollingworth Lake next to Hollingworth Lake Water Activity Centre, this cosy pub is an ideal spot for those days out by the waterside. There are tonnes of outdoor seating, so you can watch your kids in the playground and enjoy the stunning view over the lake (and their superb carvery!) at the same time. Lake Side, Littleborough, OL15 0DD The Rope & Anchor, Altrincham Nestled in the leafy hamlet of Dunham Massey, The Rope & Anchor has a lawned beer garden and a wooden playground featuring a treehouse, swings and a slide. If your little ones love an ice cream (and let's face it, what kid doesn't?), The Dunham Massey Ice Cream farm is nearby, as well as the Bridgewater Canal and Bollin Valley Way for waterside walks. Paddock Lane, Dunham Massey, Altrincham, WA14 5RP The White Horse, Chester Ahoy there, shipmates! With its huge nautical-themed play area, fully decked out with a pirate ship, The White Horse is an oasis for kids and parents alike. And, when your little pirates are all pooped out, they can create their very own pizzas with the 'Build Your Own Pizza' option on the kids' menu. Chester Racecourse, Chester CH1 2LY The Golden Pheasant, Plumley Situated in the village of Plumley, a couple of miles from the market town of Knutsford, The Pheasant's landscaped beer garden offers guests a covered terrace area, ample picnic benches and a vast lawn ideal for kids to play with stunning countryside views. The pub's garden also has a wooden play area complete with two swing sets for both younger and older children, a slide, and a wooden climbing frame. Plumley Moor Road, Plumley, Knutsford, WA16 9RX THE SOUTH The Old Neptune, Whitstable, Kent The Old Neptune is one of only a handful of pubs to be found on the beaches of Britain. Located in the heart of Whitstable, a charming fishing town, it doesn't have a traditional playground, but you can let the kids build sandcastles and collect stones and shells while you savour the sunset. Marine Terrace, Whitstable, Kent CT5 1EJ 7 Pubs with a great beer garden are ideal for families in summer, such as The Vicarage, Cranage (pictured here) Credit: Facebook 7 Soft play is a saviour on rainy days or to get kids out of the sun for a few hours - especially if there is an adjacent bar Credit: Getty The Cricketers, Woking Rain or shine, The Cricketers pub garden has you covered – literally! The pub garden not only has a tent, but a range of garden pods where patrons can shelter from a passing shower with a board game. When the sun's out, there's a big playground with climbing frames, a rocking horse and a slide to enjoy. The Cricketers also has a fab children's menu around, with dishes like fish finger tacos and strawberry and marshmallow kebabs. Horsell Birch, Woking, GU21 4XB The Castle of Comfort, East Harptree In the heart of the Mendip countryside, close to Cheddar and Wookey Hole, is the curiously-named Castle of Comfort (so-called for serving death row prisoners back in the 1600s). Outside, there's a huge beer garden with lots of seating and a large grassy children's playground overlooking lush green fields. The Castle of Comfort, East Harptree, Bristol, Somerset, BS40 6DD Bel & The Dragon, Farnham It may not be Hollywood, but this small country-style pub in the scenic Surrey Hills is surrounded by movie magic. Stop off after a stroll in Bourne Woods – where scenes from Gladiator, Robin Hood and the Harry Potter series were all filmed – and then let your kids reenact the scenes in the pub's spacious children's play area, which is open year-round. There's a Wendy house, a climbing frame, and bat and ball games. Jumps Road, Farnham, GU10 2LD GREATER LONDON Timber Lodge, Stratford This cosy café and bar is nestled in the stunning landscape of London's Olympic Park. Serving craft beers as well as arabica coffee, there's also hand-stretched Italian-style pizza and hot chocolate for the little ones. Best of all, it's right next to Tumbling Bay adventure playground with its treehouses, rock pools, sand pits, aerial walkways, rope bridges, and zip wires. 1A Honour Lea Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1DY The Rosendale, West Dulwich Known for its good-value food and laid-back vibe, The Rosendale is one of the best child-friendly pubs in South London. Alongside a great kids' menu, it has a children's climbing frame and several kids ' trikes in a playground outside, along with a boules area. 65 Rosendale Rd, Norwood, London SE21 8EZ The Plough Inn, Ealing This cosy country pub is just down the road from Hanwell Zoo, so after checking out the flamingos, pop in for a pint while your little monkeys let out their wild side on the climbing frame and slide next to the beer garden. 297 Northfield Avenue, Ealing, W5 4XB The Anglers, Teddington Anyone for tennis? Well, this pub can't quite offer that, but it does have two ping pong tables for any aspiring racqueteers. There's also a spacious beer garden with a huge outdoor play area including a climbing frame, monkey bars and table football. 3 Broom Road, Teddington, TW11 9NR NORTHERN IRELAND The Harbour Brewers Fayre, Carrickfergus With a huge soft play open 12 to 7pm that's free for children under one, The Harbour Brewers Fayre is the perfect place to stop in for some tasty pub classics and drinks after a fun day exploring Carrickfergus Castle. Alexander Pier, Rodgers Quay, Carrickfergus BT38 8BE SCOTLAND The Beech Tree, Glasgow You can spot noisy woodpeckers, cute red squirrels and even a pine marten in The Beach Tree's wildlife garden. But the real Top Guns are the inhabitants of their mini-zoo, including pygmy goats named Maverick and Goose. There are also quails, chinchillas, and even a tortoise. Kids can then hit the pub's adventure play park while the adults have a well-earned drink! Dumgoyne, By Killearn G63 9LA WALES The Cedar Tree Farm, Cardiff This Cardiff pub is perfect for a rainy day, because the games section is stocked with a Wii, a PlayStation and Gameboys, plus a huge stash of video games. Toddlers aren't left out either, as there's a soft play section too, not to mention a large selection of cakes and ice-creams on the menu. Ferry Road, Grangetown, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, CF11 0JR The Crossways, Caerphilly Have you got a house full of little menaces? Then head to The Crossways! Their outdoor Dennis the Menace-themed, fully supervised play area is perfect for Beano and comic book fans. You can even host your child's birthday there. Crossways Business Park, Pontypandy, Caerphilly, CF83 3NL

‘A warning signal': is this the beginning of the end for late-night comedy?

The Guardian

4 hours ago

The Guardian

‘A warning signal': is this the beginning of the end for late-night comedy?

'I acknowledge we're losing money,' comedian Jon Stewart told viewers this week. 'Late-night TV is a struggling financial model. We are all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records.' The remark did not dull Stewart's righteous anger about his friend Stephen Colbert's show being cancelled by CBS after its parent company Paramount settled a lawsuit with Donald Trump – and a week before Paramount's $8bn merger with Skydance was approved by federal regulators. Stewart did, however, point to another truth about the decline of a format that has been part of America's cultural fabric for three-quarters of a century. Late-night TV serves a nightly supper menu of comic monologues, variety sketches, celebrity interviews and musical acts. It turned hosts such as Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien and Colbert into a familiar and reassuring presence in millions of homes. It was also relatively cheap to make and offered lucrative returns from advertising, representing a cash cow for major networks. Stephen Farnsworth, a co-author of Late Night With Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency, says: 'It was a comforting collection of lighter fare before bed. It was for people who work second shifts in factories, people who just wanted a joke or two and a celebrity interview before they drop off. It was a cultural experience back in the days of Carson where you had one show that dominated above all and it had those moments that people would talk about the next day at work.' Not any more. The late-night format has been struggling for years as viewers increasingly cut the cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger people are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok, leaving smaller, ageing TV audiences and declining ad revenues. Whereas the Late Show might once have raked in about $100m a year, it now reportedly loses $40m a year – giving CBS a convenient pretext to pull the plug and claim it was 'purely a financial decision'. Farnsworth, the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, adds: 'The big problem with late-night comedy in recent years is the problem with all traditional media in recent years. When you move to an online environment with podcasts and on demand, it's hard to get people to pay attention in a place where the ad rates are the highest. 'There are plenty of people watching Colbert clips throughout the day on all kinds of platforms. But when you're talking about advertising revenue, it's mainly the eyeballs fixed on this TV screen. That's where the money is made, but it's also where the decline has been the greatest.' Late-night TV began in the 1950s as the postwar consumer boom made TV sets widespread, including in many bedrooms. Networks saw potential in late-night slots to capture audiences, especially younger viewers and urban professionals. The first notable show was Broadway Open House on NBC, created by Sylvester 'Pat' Weaver (the father of the actor Sigourney Weaver). Airing from 11pm to midnight, it introduced a casual, variety-style format with comedy, music and guest interviews, setting the template for future shows. The definitive late-night programme was The Tonight Show, premiering in 1954 on NBC with host Steve Allen, whose wit and improvisational style were so successful that he got moved to prime time. His successor Jack Paar added emotional depth and conversational interviews during his five-year reign. Then came Carson, whose 30-year run solidified The Tonight Show as a cultural institution, pulling in between 10 million and 15 million viewers a night at its peak. Born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska, Carson's charm went well beyond coastal cities to middle America. He interviewed presidents, performed impressions of them and told jokes at their expense but wore his own politics lightly. Farnsworth comments: 'They were jokes that never were biting. A joke about Ronald Reagan being a little confused is hardly the same thing as the kind of fare that's provided today. But it's important to remember that was a tamer time in American politics too. As America has gotten more partisan and voters and politicians themselves have gotten much harsher, late-night comedy has reflected those changing realities. 'I don't think Carson would be anywhere near as successful today. His relatively tame approach to humour would strike a lot of contemporary viewers as out of touch in the same way that, had Colbert been on the air in the 80s, he wouldn't have gotten very far.' Carson's success inspired competitors including CBS, which launched The Late Show with David Letterman in 1993. The Daily Show, a spoof news programme with mock reporters, began on the cable network Comedy Central three years later. Under Stewart, the Daily Show gave late-night a satirical edge, exposing the hypocrisy of politicians and the media with lacerating commentary and smartly edited video clips. A spin-off, The Colbert Report, was a searing parody in which Colbert played an exaggerated, bombastic version of a conservative news host and coined the term 'truthiness'. Bill Carter, the author of the book The Late Shift and executive producer of the CNN docuseries The Story of Late Night, says: 'Jon Stewart, more than anyone else in that era, brought point of view to what he did, certainly more than Letterman and Leno ever did. Young people loved it. He was breaking news to them. They didn't pay attention to news; they watched his show and they'd find out things from watching his show.' Among that generation was Tyler Hall, 36, who recalls growing up inspired by the Daily Show's iconoclastic take on the 2003 Iraq war. He says from New York: 'That was so appealing, to think that you can speak with moral authority while still being fun and funny and not preachy and shouty. It felt like a dream to put a finger in the eye of people who were oppressing and causing harm. 'I've always thought there was something kind of punk rock about Colbert tricking people in his interviews in those early days because they thought he was for real, or Jon Stewart spitting back in people's faces their own video clips. It felt badass. The teenage version of me wanted to be part of it and was fortunate to be part of it.' Hall got a job as as a researcher at The Colbert Report and followed Colbert to The Late Show in 2015. Even as Stewart stepped away from the Daily Show to make way for the South African comedian Trevor Noah, his legacy lived on as proteges such as Samantha Bee, Jordan Klepper, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore and Roy Wood Jr forged their own paths. Hall reflects: 'There was certainly an abundance, a diversity, you could even say, a glut of these late-night political shows. There would honestly be times where we could all accidentally write the same punchline off the same thing of the day. We didn't know what the other one was writing, but inevitably enough of the same smart people writing on the same topic bang out the same basic joke.' Having initially struggled with the transition to a major network, appearing as himself rather than a character, Colbert found his voice in the era of Trump. His nightly monologues skewering the president are sardonic, silly, smart, snarky and sublime, an invaluable body of work for future historians seeking to understand the decade when America lost its mind. They also carry a rare moral force. David Litt, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama whose books include It's Only Drowning, says: 'What stood out was Colbert's kindness as an individual and his public persona as an upstanding citizen. That stands in real contrast to Donald Trump. Colbert was the personification of the idea that people who believe in basic decency have a natural inclination toward saying: 'I want nothing to do with Trump and I have no interest in bending the knee.' 'The Maga frustration with Colbert was you had this person who was a religious Catholic from South Carolina, in many ways not easy to dismiss as a coastal elite or crazy socialist. And what he was saying is that it is deeply American to oppose this man and to find what he's doing both ridiculous and abhorrent.' The Late Show became the most watched late-night programme with ratings peaking at 3.1 million viewers during the 2017-18 season, according to Nielsen data. But not even Colbert was immune to the tectonic plates shifting beneath the format. In the season that ended in May his audience averaged 1.9 million. The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2m last year from $121.1m in 2018, according to the ad tracking firm Guideline. Carter, who has written four books about TV, is not surprised. 'It's of a piece with the end of linear TV,' he says. 'The regular primetime programming that's on the old traditional networks has faded to the point where the ratings stagger me how small they are. It's like a pond that's shrinking in the sun. It's getting smaller and smaller. 'CBS has made the point that they were losing money and we have to believe them; I'm sure they have finances that show that. But it didn't look to me like they did a whole lot to counter that.' Carter notes that some late-night shows have saved money by ditching their live band or reducing the number of nights they broadcast. But CBS, whose parent company was accused by Colbert of paying a 'big fat bribe' to Trump just three days before the cancellation, made little effort to adapt or save the format. 'I don't know exactly how they handled this, but the shows became somewhat bloated. When Colbert talked about this last week, he said I want to thank the 200 people who work on the show, and one of Letterman's former producers spoke to me and said: 'They have 200 people on their show?' The shrinkage was happening but it didn't look like CBS was doing that much that I could see until they totally pulled the plug.' Indeed, CBS appears to be ready to give up on late-night. When The Late Late Show host James Corden left in 2023, the network opted not to hire a replacement. The network also cancelled After Midnight this year after host Taylor Tomlinson chose to return to full-time standup comedy. Late-night comedians have followed their younger audiences online, releasing clips to YouTube or TikTok. But digital advertising does not make up for the lost TV ad revenue. Carter observes: 'They have very big subscriber bases. Jimmy Kimmel of ABC and Jimmy Fallon of NBC both have over 15 million to 20 million people subscribe to their TikTok or YouTube channels. That's an enormous number of people but they have not been able to monetise that. 'People watch it whenever they feel like it, which is the way television works now. It's very hard, if you're not compelled to watch something, to then commercialise it. How do you get commercials into that? In the past, people would sit through the commercials with Johnny Carson and wait till he came back. People try to avoid commercials now.' He adds: 'It isn't like the idea of late-night is bad or weak or old or used up. It's that the distribution method has changed so dramatically that making money off the old format is very difficult.' Farnsworth agrees: 'The shows haven't failed. The shows have kept up with the changing preferences but you simply don't get the same advertising revenue online that you do with over-the-air broadcasts. 'These are shows that draw millions of viewers every evening, not to mention millions of more viewers through other platforms. There's an audience for this. It may not be as big as it was, but no audience is. There's nothing that television could do to recreate must-see TV or the popularity of All in the Family or M*A*S*H today. People just don't consume media the same way.' He concludes: 'Ultimately the strategy for the remaining shows is living with less. You're going to have to figure out ways to cut the staff, maybe air fewer nights a week. This is definitely a warning signal for the genre of late-night humour. But it's not a death knell.'

The Guardian

5 hours ago

The Guardian

‘A warning signal': is this the beginning of the end for late-night comedy?

'I acknowledge we're losing money,' comedian Jon Stewart told viewers this week. 'Late-night TV is a struggling financial model. We are all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records.' The remark did not dull Stewart's righteous anger about his friend Stephen Colbert's show being cancelled by CBS after its parent company Paramount settled a lawsuit with Donald Trump – and a week before Paramount's $8bn merger with Skydance was approved by federal regulators. Stewart did, however, point to another truth about the decline of a format that has been part of America's cultural fabric for three-quarters of a century. Late-night TV serves a nightly supper menu of comic monologues, variety sketches, celebrity interviews and musical acts. It turned hosts such as Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien and Colbert into a familiar and reassuring presence in millions of homes. It was also relatively cheap to make and offered lucrative returns from advertising, representing a cash cow for major networks. Stephen Farnsworth, a co-author of Late Night With Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency, says: 'It was a comforting collection of lighter fare before bed. It was for people who work second shifts in factories, people who just wanted a joke or two and a celebrity interview before they drop off. It was a cultural experience back in the days of Carson where you had one show that dominated above all and it had those moments that people would talk about the next day at work.' Not any more. The late-night format has been struggling for years as viewers increasingly cut the cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger people are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok, leaving smaller, ageing TV audiences and declining ad revenues. Whereas the Late Show might once have raked in about $100m a year, it now reportedly loses $40m a year – giving CBS a convenient pretext to pull the plug and claim it was 'purely a financial decision'. Farnsworth, the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, adds: 'The big problem with late-night comedy in recent years is the problem with all traditional media in recent years. When you move to an online environment with podcasts and on demand, it's hard to get people to pay attention in a place where the ad rates are the highest. 'There are plenty of people watching Colbert clips throughout the day on all kinds of platforms. But when you're talking about advertising revenue, it's mainly the eyeballs fixed on this TV screen. That's where the money is made, but it's also where the decline has been the greatest.' Late-night TV began in the 1950s as the postwar consumer boom made TV sets widespread, including in many bedrooms. Networks saw potential in late-night slots to capture audiences, especially younger viewers and urban professionals. The first notable show was Broadway Open House on NBC, created by Sylvester 'Pat' Weaver (the father of the actor Sigourney Weaver). Airing from 11pm to midnight, it introduced a casual, variety-style format with comedy, music and guest interviews, setting the template for future shows. The definitive late-night programme was The Tonight Show, premiering in 1954 on NBC with host Steve Allen, whose wit and improvisational style were so successful that he got moved to prime time. His successor Jack Paar added emotional depth and conversational interviews during his five-year reign. Then came Carson, whose 30-year run solidified The Tonight Show as a cultural institution, pulling in between 10 million and 15 million viewers a night at its peak. Born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska, Carson's charm went well beyond coastal cities to middle America. He interviewed presidents, performed impressions of them and told jokes at their expense but wore his own politics lightly. Farnsworth comments: 'They were jokes that never were biting. A joke about Ronald Reagan being a little confused is hardly the same thing as the kind of fare that's provided today. But it's important to remember that was a tamer time in American politics too. As America has gotten more partisan and voters and politicians themselves have gotten much harsher, late-night comedy has reflected those changing realities. 'I don't think Carson would be anywhere near as successful today. His relatively tame approach to humour would strike a lot of contemporary viewers as out of touch in the same way that, had Colbert been on the air in the 80s, he wouldn't have gotten very far.' Carson's success inspired competitors including CBS, which launched The Late Show with David Letterman in 1993. The Daily Show, a spoof news programme with mock reporters, began on the cable network Comedy Central three years later. Under Stewart, the Daily Show gave late-night a satirical edge, exposing the hypocrisy of politicians and the media with lacerating commentary and smartly edited video clips. A spin-off, The Colbert Report, was a searing parody in which Colbert played an exaggerated, bombastic version of a conservative news host and coined the term 'truthiness'. Bill Carter, the author of the book The Late Shift and executive producer of the CNN docuseries The Story of Late Night, says: 'Jon Stewart, more than anyone else in that era, brought point of view to what he did, certainly more than Letterman and Leno ever did. Young people loved it. He was breaking news to them. They didn't pay attention to news; they watched his show and they'd find out things from watching his show.' Among that generation was Tyler Hall, 36, who recalls growing up inspired by the Daily Show's iconoclastic take on the 2003 Iraq war. He says from New York: 'That was so appealing, to think that you can speak with moral authority while still being fun and funny and not preachy and shouty. It felt like a dream to put a finger in the eye of people who were oppressing and causing harm. 'I've always thought there was something kind of punk rock about Colbert tricking people in his interviews in those early days because they thought he was for real, or Jon Stewart spitting back in people's faces their own video clips. It felt badass. The teenage version of me wanted to be part of it and was fortunate to be part of it.' Hall got a job as as a researcher at The Colbert Report and followed Colbert to The Late Show in 2015. Even as Stewart stepped away from the Daily Show to make way for the South African comedian Trevor Noah, his legacy lived on as proteges such as Samantha Bee, Jordan Klepper, John Oliver, Larry Wilmore and Roy Wood Jr forged their own paths. Hall reflects: 'There was certainly an abundance, a diversity, you could even say, a glut of these late-night political shows. There would honestly be times where we could all accidentally write the same punchline off the same thing of the day. We didn't know what the other one was writing, but inevitably enough of the same smart people writing on the same topic bang out the same basic joke.' Having initially struggled with the transition to a major network, appearing as himself rather than a character, Colbert found his voice in the era of Trump. His nightly monologues skewering the president are sardonic, silly, smart, snarky and sublime, an invaluable body of work for future historians seeking to understand the decade when America lost its mind. They also carry a rare moral force. David Litt, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama whose books include It's Only Drowning, says: 'What stood out was Colbert's kindness as an individual and his public persona as an upstanding citizen. That stands in real contrast to Donald Trump. Colbert was the personification of the idea that people who believe in basic decency have a natural inclination toward saying: 'I want nothing to do with Trump and I have no interest in bending the knee.' 'The Maga frustration with Colbert was you had this person who was a religious Catholic from South Carolina, in many ways not easy to dismiss as a coastal elite or crazy socialist. And what he was saying is that it is deeply American to oppose this man and to find what he's doing both ridiculous and abhorrent.' The Late Show became the most watched late-night programme with ratings peaking at 3.1 million viewers during the 2017-18 season, according to Nielsen data. But not even Colbert was immune to the tectonic plates shifting beneath the format. In the season that ended in May his audience averaged 1.9 million. The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2m last year from $121.1m in 2018, according to the ad tracking firm Guideline. Carter, who has written four books about TV, is not surprised. 'It's of a piece with the end of linear TV,' he says. 'The regular primetime programming that's on the old traditional networks has faded to the point where the ratings stagger me how small they are. It's like a pond that's shrinking in the sun. It's getting smaller and smaller. 'CBS has made the point that they were losing money and we have to believe them; I'm sure they have finances that show that. But it didn't look to me like they did a whole lot to counter that.' Carter notes that some late-night shows have saved money by ditching their live band or reducing the number of nights they broadcast. But CBS, whose parent company was accused by Colbert of paying a 'big fat bribe' to Trump just three days before the cancellation, made little effort to adapt or save the format. 'I don't know exactly how they handled this, but the shows became somewhat bloated. When Colbert talked about this last week, he said I want to thank the 200 people who work on the show, and one of Letterman's former producers spoke to me and said: 'They have 200 people on their show?' The shrinkage was happening but it didn't look like CBS was doing that much that I could see until they totally pulled the plug.' Indeed, CBS appears to be ready to give up on late-night. When The Late Late Show host James Corden left in 2023, the network opted not to hire a replacement. The network also cancelled After Midnight this year after host Taylor Tomlinson chose to return to full-time standup comedy. Late-night comedians have followed their younger audiences online, releasing clips to YouTube or TikTok. But digital advertising does not make up for the lost TV ad revenue. Carter observes: 'They have very big subscriber bases. Jimmy Kimmel of ABC and Jimmy Fallon of NBC both have over 15 million to 20 million people subscribe to their TikTok or YouTube channels. That's an enormous number of people but they have not been able to monetise that. 'People watch it whenever they feel like it, which is the way television works now. It's very hard, if you're not compelled to watch something, to then commercialise it. How do you get commercials into that? In the past, people would sit through the commercials with Johnny Carson and wait till he came back. People try to avoid commercials now.' He adds: 'It isn't like the idea of late-night is bad or weak or old or used up. It's that the distribution method has changed so dramatically that making money off the old format is very difficult.' Farnsworth agrees: 'The shows haven't failed. The shows have kept up with the changing preferences but you simply don't get the same advertising revenue online that you do with over-the-air broadcasts. 'These are shows that draw millions of viewers every evening, not to mention millions of more viewers through other platforms. There's an audience for this. It may not be as big as it was, but no audience is. There's nothing that television could do to recreate must-see TV or the popularity of All in the Family or M*A*S*H today. People just don't consume media the same way.' He concludes: 'Ultimately the strategy for the remaining shows is living with less. You're going to have to figure out ways to cut the staff, maybe air fewer nights a week. This is definitely a warning signal for the genre of late-night humour. But it's not a death knell.'

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