I hope Colbert moves into the world Rogan inhabits. He would have more interesting guests, that’s for sure.
Plus many, many more I skipped because they didn’t show a preview.
As I said, everyone in the business has been saying this for years. Perhaps the economics don’t actually work.
“Is it time for Matlock yet?”
Stranger
Perhaps they don’t. But if the economics don’t work for a network late night talk show, then CBS (and ABC and NBC) should just turn the time slot back to the affiliates for reruns and infomercials.
I suspect that the networks would be loathe to give up 1 to 2 hours of commercial revenue, even at lower viewership levels.
What I foresee is that late night will wind up being some combination of re-runs of prime-time shows which had aired a few days earlier, and/or first-run programming which is even cheaper to make than the current late-night talk/variety shows – which would probably mean news.
Colbert and his writers are brilliant, and not just at Trump bashing. His post-monologue segments are amazing, particularly Meanwhile. Stephen, Jimmy, and Jimmy were the canaries in this coal mine of a country. Opposition is being silenced so really bad stuff can be done.
Colbert calls the Paramount settlement with TFG what it is:
"I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: It’s big fat bribe.”
Two days later CBS announces the cancellation of his show, with the assurance that it has nothing to do with other matters happening at Paramount. Color me unconvinced.
Any reason to think Colbert wouldn’t have known about the decision ahead of time?
Nothing matters to the networks except the amount of advertising revenues a program brings in. And the demographics of the viewers matter to the advertisers. Turning the time over to affiliates is diametrically opposed to growing their bottom line.
Stewart has talked about how much he despises the trump / Paramount lawsuit and has said he’ll be ready to walk away if and when. Yeah, either just Stewart, or Stewart and the show, may follow Colbert soon.
Prime Time, commercials pay a LOT more.
Right.
Right.
That just means they would have to pay him not that they have to keep the show on for that long. If he’s getting fired for political reasons they are still letting him bash Trump for 10 more months.
Maybe Colbert can bring out the Bugatti mouse.
I’ve been watching tonight’s show. Colbert is not pulling any punches.
PBS can’t afford to have someone so overtly politically opinionated now that their funding has been cut supposedly due to being too politically opinionated. But I have no doubt someone will snatch him up (please, please, please, please, please…)
This way they can claim it wasn’t for political reasons.
There is absolutely no question that Paramount is pusillanimous with regard to Trump. There is NO OTHER WORD for their 60 Minutes settlement. NONE. A decision that made a mockery of freedom of the press. Why on earth should I give them any benefit of the doubt ever again?
Waiting until the end of the season lets them fool people into thinking that the decision is purely fiscal. Plus it will take them that long to develop a replacement that would have any prayer in the ratings.
Hopefully he’ll crank it up to eleven for the rest of the season.
Neither is Adam Schiff, who is one of Colbert’s guests tonight. Spoilered, because the show has not been seen in all US time zones yet.
“Donald, piss off! [Pause] But before you do, release the Epstein files.”
Gonna be some ketchup-stained walls tonight.
What people think is one thing. Any benefit they get from Trump would only work if it happened right away. Doing something that won’t happen for 10 months doesn’t help you with someone who has no long term vision.
I’m not sure Trump needs to hear anything besides “Colbert cancelled”. Then his short attention span moves on to something else.
Plus just dropping the show without a viable replacement would cause an immediate drop in revenue, which would hurt the company’s valuation in the middle of a merger. They are walking a line between kissing Trump’s ass and avoiding a shareholder revolt. Hopefully the whole thing blows up in their face.
I’m 100% sure Trump’s ego doesn’t let him ignore what they are saying about him. He’s probably a nightly watcher. He will have to watch for the next 10 months.
I’m also going to guess there won’t be what you would call a viable replacement. There won’t be new original programming. They will probably run reruns of their shows. Maybe in a few years with the next regime they will think about original programming.