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- It’s very, very hard to sell books these days.
- So you’d figure Nate Silver would jump at the chance to be on “The Daily Show” last fall, when he was promoting his new book.
- Nope. Silver said he’d rather spend the time with a “niche podcast.” Which tells you a lot about the state of TV these days.
A few days after Paramount shocked the TV world by announcing the end of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, there’s still plenty of debate about the why: Was it because the show was bleeding money — or was it a political sacrifice to appease Donald Trump?
But there’s no debate that late-night TV talk shows — once an important staple of the American media diet — are in permanent decline.
Viewership on conventional TV is going, going gone. Those shows may still find audiences who watch clips on social media, but those eyeballs won’t pay the bills.
That’s the dollars and cents argument. What about the shows’ abilities to focus attention? Isn’t that worth something, in a world where attention is constantly atomized?
Not really, says Nate Silver. The writer and poll interpreter says he turned down an invitation to appear on Paramount’s “Daily Show” last fall — in the midst of a book tour.
That’s partly because Silver and his publisher didn’t think he’d be sitting for an interview where he could promote the book with Jon Stewart or one of the show’s other hosts, he says. Instead, it was supposed to be some kind of stunt-y debate with Allan Lichtman, the historian-turned-election prognosticator Silver doesn’t take seriously.
But it’s also because Silver thought he had better things to do than appear on late-night TV, he writes in an item about Colbert’s cancellation: “The upside wasn’t there the way it might have been a decade ago. The Daily Show — and even The Late Show — weren’t necessarily a better use of my time than a niche podcast that might have a smaller audience but would convert more efficiently to book sales.”
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This anecdote is very flattering for podcasters — as well as people who got an interview with Silver during his book tour but didn’t publish it on a podcast. And it’s yet another marker of Things That Used To Be A Big Deal And Aren’t Anymore.
In the old days, getting an author on TV was considered a real coup for publishers — particularly during Jon Stewart’s first stint at “The Daily Show.” (A Stewart interview is still important in the eyes of some authors.) And turning down a TV spot would be hard to fathom.
Not anymore.
