Posted on 07/20/2025 8:55:11 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The axing of Stephen Colbert's Late Show has been received as a death knell for late-night television - but there's still time for one more rising star before the world of cable TV is eclipsed by TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram reels.
CBS and its parent company, Paramount, announced that Colbert's show would 'end its historic run' in May 2026, just over a decade after it first launched, as it hemorrhaged $40 million per year.
'We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time,' the broadcast executives said.
'We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and his broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.'
In fact, Colbert, 61, had the best current ratings of all the traditional late-night 11.35pm show hosts before he got the chop.
The veteran presenter attracted 2.42 million viewers across 41 first-run episodes - easily outpacing ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! which had 1.77 million, and NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which had 1.19 million, per LateNighter.
According to the TV specialist news site, the Late Show was the only one among nine mainstream programs tracked which drew more viewers in the second quarter of 2025 than the first, with a small audience growth of one percent.
So it's no wonder that Colbert's axing has got other left-leaning hosts shaking in their boots.
Kimmel, 57, blasted CBS via his Instagram stories. He reposted Colbert's announcement with the caption: 'Love you Stephen. F**k you and all your Sheldons CBS.'
Late night talk show host Andy Cohen, 57, also said he was 'stunned' by the news.
'I can't believe CBS is turning off the lights at 11:30 after the local news.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
He’ll end up like that Joy Reid wench. Doing a podcast from bed.
The unlikely conservative star?
Man do these people live in a parallel universe or what?
Gutfeld has been out performing all of them for years
Ijuts
How to say "I didn't read the article" without actually saying "I didn't read the article."
At $20 mil per year he should have enough put away f
To purchase a nice home and quit. But he probably can’t live without a fake adoring audience
These people don’t know what to do without a manufactured audience and a laugh/clap director
I guess I don’t understand certain things.
Colbert has the highest rated late night show, but his show loses $40 million a year?
Has CBS been subsidizing COLBERT all these years, to keep him on the air? But why would they do that? Just to provide a platform for him to take pot shots at Trump? What the heck?
“””’I can’t believe CBS is turning off the lights at 11:30 after the local news.’”””
Since this is not 1972 nobody watches the evening news, either.
Colbert’s show was losing $ 40 million a year; no contest in shutting it down. Advertisers had no interest in sponsoring. He’s not funny, he’s bitter, and he’s not particularly bright.
How about the Indian dude test pattern
Gutfeld! is always engaging to me. I’ve never watched Colbert or Kimmel, and only know about them when something is posted here or in the news somewhere.
That's all these shows are in essence, a podcast. A podcast that costs CBS $100 million each year to produce. And the podcasters are doing this so much better for a microscopic fraction of the cost.
And to a much larger audience.
Yes. Which is funny because Colbert is doing a bad job at it.
The new owner is not going to want to subsidize Colbert so he's on his way out.
It appears that ratings do not translate directly to advertising dollars, or fees to the local affiliates or cable providers. Maybe it’s just a cost allocation problem. If your show reports 20 million in total revenue and 60 million in total expenses, eventually there is a problem in a for profit enterprise.
“Who is next?”
Anyone who was being pumped full of USAID dollars to inflate their DNC propaganda message.
There are so many alternative venues for late night “comedy”. It’s not like the old days before the internet and streaming.
I think the media form has run it’s course regardless of who the host is.
Next up? Saturday Night Live.
Colbert’s show annually costs $100MM and loses $40MM, per reports.
The left is claiming that “politics” is why he’s getting cancelled.
Well…maybe. But consider this…
Left statism was driving culture generally in the US since 2008, arguably.
That would mean “politics” is the only reason why this loss-producing show existed for so many years.
Flavors of the month eventually melt.
Kelsey Grammer would make an awesome late night host!!!!
I imagine USAID was subsidizing content like this. Notice how things are being dropped since USAID was canned?
Leftist propaganda outlet, plain and simple.
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