In a shocking move, CBS is ending "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" next year, potentially exiting the late-night television business altogether.
The move to cancel one of television's last remaining crown jewels of broadcast programming came just days after Colbert publicly criticized CBS's corporate owner, Paramount, for agreeing to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle an outrageous $20 billion lawsuit against the company.
-- Mother Jones (@motherjones.com) Jul 18, 2025 at 5:21 PM
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From another thread in this topic ( drudge.com ) ...
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
en.wikipedia.org
... The Late Show has remained the highest-rated American late-night talk show for nine consecutive seasons as of 2025, marking the longest winning streak in franchise history over its competitors; since 2019, it exceeded The Tonight Show in key demographic viewership. ...
The show was a recipient for the Peabody Award and earned Primetime Emmy Award nominations including six times for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, as of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.[121][122][123] ...
Ratings for all network late night shows have been falling for some time now. Colbert probably would do better as a podcast, as Lamplighter suggested. So the timing of the cancellation IS suspect, but it may have happened eventually anyway.
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fortune.com
October 25, 2024 at 7:31 AM EDT
But the format is stagnating: the most popular among them, Colbert's "Late Show" on CBS, has seen its audience slashed by 32 percent over the last five years.
And ad revenue is vanishing. In the first eight months of 2024, it fell 10 percent, according to media analytics firm Guideline, after an even bigger drop last year..."Profits the shows provide have shrunk toward non-existent."
Those were once both hallmarks of late night, but now, "even the guest segments are very carefully prepared" on network shows, according to Semel.
A podcast without time constraints that can evolve in real time "brings more enjoyment for the guests and for the hosts, and probably by translation, for the listeners and viewers as well," Semel said.
"We all like it when we see people who are talking genuinely having fun, not manufactured fun."
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www.msn.com
The Writers Guild of America also raised questions, saying the cancellation appeared to be a case of "sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration."
One factor contradicting the theory is that Colbert, who has another year on his contract, will remain on the air through May. His commentaries have never been restrained by network executives over his 10-year run and that situation is not expected to change in his final season.
The poor optics may be a matter of contractual timing.
Paramount Global had to complete the deals with writer-producer teams in July for the upcoming "Late Show" season, according to a person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to comment.
Those deals typically run for a full year, but with the company's intention to cancel the program " decided several months ago " the contracts being offered only ran through May, which tipped off the network's plans.
"Late Show" is said to be losing somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars a year as younger viewers have fled. Since 2022, the program has lost 20% of its audience in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 age group, according to Nielsen data.
@#15 .. Late Show" is said to be losing somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars a year as younger viewers have fled. Since 2022, the program has lost 20% of its audience in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 age group, according to Nielsen data. ...
Got a link?
thx.
But, my current view still remains along these lines ...
Critic's Notebook: The Awful Optics of CBS Canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert'
www.hollywoodreporter.com
... In a shocking move that reflected just about every deeply felt insecurity in the TV industry, the entertainment industry and perhaps American media at large, CBS announced on Thursday, July 17, that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will wrap its run in May 2026, following the 2025-26 broadcast season.
Eager to emphasize that this wasn't a Colbert-specific thing, CBS, in its statement, said that the entire Late Show franchise is coming to an end. This isn't quite the same, in historical terms, as the legacy shift that would occur if NBC announced the end of The Tonight Show -- The Late Show was David Letterman and then it was Stephen Colbert, not an endless and storied parade of hosts--" but it's a degree of finality that few could have expected. ...
@18 Yeah I hear ya. Yes they are number one, but ALL late night network shows have been dropping in ratings. According to the articles, Jimmy Fallon cut his new shows from 5 days a week to four back last year, which follows CBS and ABC doing the same thing. So basically, yes...#1 for sure....but perhaps #1 in a field that is shrinking in ratings across the board? And has been shrinking for some time.
I don't think there are ANY network tv shows in ANY time slot that get anything more that a fraction of the ratings they once did. For example, in the 1980's network primetime hit shows garnered 30-40 million viewers. Today a hit show gets about 1-5 million. Huge drop www.sparetimetv.com
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