晚 pairs the sun 日 with 免 (to escape, also the sound): the sun slipping away — evening, and by extension lateness. The character is a sunset in two parts.
晚 closes what 早 opens: 晚上 (evening), 晚饭 (dinner), 晚安 ('evening peace' — goodnight, the last text of the day). 来晚了 ('came late') needs a 不好意思 attached. The evening news is 晚间新闻; the year's biggest TV event, the Spring Festival Gala, is the 春晚 — 'Spring Evening', watched by a billion people while dumplings boil.
The sun 日 escaping 免 below the horizon — EVENING, LATE.
春晚 (the 'Spring Evening' gala) draws around a billion viewers each Chinese New Year's Eve — television's largest annual audience on earth.