Posting here because there is no way this isn’t politically motivated:
CBS, however, said in a statement that “this is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Bull fucking shit.
When you have nothing to lose, you can do anything. Gonna be a fun ten months.
I wanted to like Colbert on the Late Show, I really did. But like so much else in culture it was all completely subsumed by Trump for the last decade and I found that I rarely actually wanted to sit through his show because it was all Trump all the time. Including his constant terrible “I’m doing Trump now, aren’t I funny” voice.
I’ll bet another network picks him up. PBS? That will bring in donations like crazy! Win-win.
Somewhere in a closet, Jay Leno is lurking and listening.
Stranger
To be fair, I’ve been reading for several years that all of the Big 3 networks have been struggling with their late-night talk shows, from a ratings and profitability standpoint, as younger viewers in particular are now watching things online, rather than over-the-air or on cable.
But, despite that, it’s pretty obvious that this is another appeasement to Trump, particularly as Paramount looks to gain regulatory approval for their merger with Skydance Media – whose CEO, David Ellison, has apparently been sucking up to Trump in recent weeks, after donating to the Biden campaign last year.
I’ve been watching Colbert’s show since he took it over from David Letterman, and it seemed to me that, initially, he struggled with finding his voice on the show, and the direction he wanted to take it. As Trump’s candidacy in 2016 took off, Colbert made the show increasingly political (and regularly mocked Trump), which did help his ratings, at least in the short term, but also likely turned off some viewers: Trump supporters, as well as those like @asterion , who may not have wanted so much political content from their late-night talk show.
I don’t mind political content. I spent my college years (and grad school and up until both Stewart and Colbert left Comedy Central) watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report night after night. But again, it was just simply all Trump all the time. At some point there are other things to talk about. The same dynamic made me stop listening to Wait, Wait on NPR, for example.
CBS had been planning to renew the show following Colbert, After Midnight, when the host decided not to continue. Instead of finding another host, they just shut the show down and have no intention of replacing it with any kind of late night programming other than reruns.
Whatever feelings they have about Colbert, I’ll bet they have more negative ones about late night. Talk has been for years that late night programming as we know it is a dead genre.
Did politics play a part? Sure. (Colbert was the executive producer of After Midnight, and maybe that made a difference.) But I’ll bet that the end didn’t get bumped up much if at all.
Kimmel and Colbert both hit Trump constantly. Kimmel is funnier.
I will make a point of watching tonight to see if Colbert comments on the decision.
And, by the way, if the reason is political, why would they continue with The Daily Show? That is far more political.
According to this cite, Colbert is the #1 show in late night, although Jimmy Kimmel has slightly better numbers in the 18-49 demographic.
A late night talk show is about the cheapest programming there is. In exchange for plugging their latest project, book, or cause for 6-12 minutes, the network gets A (or at least B) list talent for union scale. Throw in a band and you have several million viewers per week to show advertisers, and plenty of nicely timed clips for YouTube and podcasts. The only thing cheaper is Nightline which got pushed out of the 11:35 spot years ago.
If CBS were to program anything at 11:35 after shutting down Colbert for “economics” it will be a sign of pure political caving. As it stands right now, it’s merely a highly visible sign of greed and politics in big business.
Looking forward to the return of…
He posted a 2 minute video ahead of the show tonight. He only thanked everyone but didn’t really say anything.
If the reason was political why let him keep doing the show for another 10 months?
Probably ten months is the remaining contract term.
Jon Stewart’s contract on The Daily Show only runs through the end of this year, It won’t surprise me in the slightest if his contract is not renewed, and that show gets axed, too.
CBS, however, said in a statement that “this is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The corporate financial pressures are real; Paramount laid off another 3.5 percent of its workforce just last month.
Due to plunging ad revenue, “The Late Show” is no longer profitable, according to a source close to the network.
Why? you can get other programming much cheaper. His salary is like $15 Million a year.
Plus $15 million for his salary alone, plus productions costs, etc
Probably so. May of next year is the end of the show’s season.
The major networks are already propaganda on par with what Fox News was 20 years ago. Everything is massively in favor of Trump, republicans, and fascism. Colbert was one of the few voices on mainstream media willing to speak truth to power. They say they’re going to kill the late night talk show in general but I wouldn’t be surprised to see something basically similar pop up because it’s cheap to make and it has a basically guaranteed audience, but it will be much more fascist supporting.
I 100% believe it’s about this. This is the way to get the government to allow this to go through. Colbert is the sacrifice they make. And if there has been a ratings drop of late, it’s not a hard decision. But I’m sure if Harris was in the White House, or this deal was not in the works, they wouldn’t be killing such a long-running show with a dedicated (if shrinking) fanbase.
$15 million divided by 160 first-run shows per year works out to $93,750 per show.
Mariska Hargitay gets about the same $15 million for 22 episodes of Law and Order SVU.
Late night TV is cheap to produce and delivers a steady (if shrinking) audience.