I'm writing this post at the end of July, 2025, a few days after the announcement that CBS has decided to cancel "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." I don't know when or even if this is going to be posted to the blog. I try not to post too immediately about big events in the entertainment world, because stories tend to evolve over time as we get more information, and I don't feel comfortable speculating when so much is up in the air. However, I feel I have to say something.
No matter how you frame it, this is bad. Stephen Colbert will be fine, but "The Late Show" will not be going on without him, and the entire late night television ecosystem appears to be in imminent peril. If you believe what CBS claims (I don't) and "The Late Show" is being canned for purely economic reasons, it means that all of the late night shows aren't making enough money. Colbert has consistently had the highest late night talk show ratings since 2017. There were a few signs that this decision was coming, however. A few months ago CBS also canceled "After Midnight" with Taylor Tomlinson, opting to no longer program the 12:30AM slot. It's been widely speculated that Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is next on the chopping block despite Jon Stewart's return bringing their highest ratings in years. It's been clear that the economics for late night television - really, all network television - haven't been good in a while, and I've been hearing persistent gossip that all the major players are considering similar moves to downsize their schedules.
However, the timing here is clearly being influenced by outside forces. CBS and Comedy Central are both owned by Paramount Global. And so we come to the proposed Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger, an estimated $8 billion deal, which needed federal approval in order to go through. After multiple delays, it finally got that approval by the FCC six days after "The Late Show" was cancelled. Paramount has had to stay on the right side of the Trump administration, which has proven to be very vindictive and litigious toward the legacy media companies, pulling funding from NPR and PBS, and bullying ABC into ponying up $15 million over a bogus defamation lawsuit. Paramount has also paid $16 million over supposedly misleading editing in a "60 Minutes" piece, and forced out executive producer Bill Owens. Stephen Colbert called this a "big fat bribe" on "The Late Show," three days before the cancellation of his show was announced. The Trump administration has since decided to sue Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal for libel.
Stephen Colbert leaving the airwaves - at least temporarily - seems to be a big win for Donald Trump at first glance. Nearly all of the late night show hosts have been vocally critical of the Trump administration, and haven't been shy about using their platforms to shine a light on their wrongdoings. While the traditional news media has been depressingly quick to play nice with Trump, and back down from any confrontations, Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart have not hesitated to call Trump out at every step. While their television audiences have shrunk, all of these shows have Youtube channels with millions of subscribers. Colbert averages two million viewers a night on CBS, and two million more watch his monologue on Youtube. And from the reaction from the industry and the viewers so far, nobody is happy with this decision. And Colbert's fellow late show hosts aren't rattled. They're mad. And Colbert's former Comedy Central compadres over at "South Park"? Really mad.
There's already speculation about where Stephen Colbert is going to go after "The Late Show." Will Netflix or Apple TV+ offer him a deal? Will he start a podcast or his own Youtube channel? Will he retire the way that his "Late Show" predecessor David Letterman did? Would he consider a political career? Because of the impending cancellation, Colbert is getting more attention and goodwill than ever, and the ratings for his final shows are going to be through the roof. He's got ten months left on the air, and I for one do not intend to stop watching now.
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