Maher Says To ‘Survive’ Hosting A Late Show You ‘Have To Just Be Preaching’ To Liberals

Comedian and podcast host Bill Maher said during a new episode of “Club Random” that talk show hosts have to preach to liberal audiences in order for their show to survive.

Maher was joined by actor and comedian Russell Brand when they began discussing the intertwining of comedy and politics.

“Do you agree — the emergence of comedic commentary in the political space? I suppose maybe it began with you, Jon Stewart, that kind of stuff and maybe even before you,” Brand said.

“Well, yes, there was always some of that. What’s different is that what I was doing when we started was something that they said could never work, which is having the host also render an opinion,” Maher said. “The other guys like Johnny Carson never did that.” (RELATED: ‘They Were The Party Of Slavery’: Maher Says Democrats Had Bad Roots While Defending Italian Prime Minister)

“It was like, ‘no, you’ll alienate half the audience.’ And my theory was, ‘no, they can like you if they don’t agree with you.’ In the 30 years since I started, that’s almost completely switched,” he continued.

“Now to survive in a late night American talk show, you have to just be preaching to that liberal audience, which is, you know, mostly what I would agree with too. But it’s so indoctrinated and it’s so, ‘we all have agreed that this is the premise.’ Like, ‘[Giorgia] Meloni, is a fascist.’ That’s a perfect example. We all read it in The New York Times — or somebody read it for us or told us, and now the Italians are taken over by the fascists. And no attempt to look under the surface or for a different point of view — just stuff that will make people clap in the audience because this is what my team believes. Ivermectin is horse medicine or whatever it is.”

Brand agreed, arguing that for both left-leaning and right-leaning hosts, they “have got their audience.”

“The Republican Right have got their audience,” Brand said. “The Democrat Left have got their audience, play to your audience, count the money. The ball has changed.”