Posted on 07/19/2025 7:43:25 AM PDT by lasereye
CBS brass say they pulled the plug on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” because of its punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year — and claim politics had nothing to do with it.
The 61-year-old host got canned just days after he took a dig at the Tiffany Network over its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris as the network’s parent Paramount negotiates with the Trump administration regulatory approval for its $8 billion sale to independent studio Skydance.
“I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company,” Colbert said of the truce in his Monday night monologue.
“But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
But scathing jokes at the expense of CBS brass wasn’t the problem, according to insiders.
Instead, the network’s bosses could no longer stomach the fact that Colbert has been plagued with an increasingly dire shortage of advertisers.
That’s despite Colbert’s No, 1 ratings in his time slot and his status as a key face for the Tiffany Network.
In the end, Paramount’s co-CEO George Cheeks decided to kill the show, sources said.
“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” said a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision.
“Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”
Some Democrats voiced suspicion, citing the host’s left-wing leanings and CBS owner Paramount’s urgent need to gain an OK from the Trump administration for the merger with Skydance.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote on X.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Someone asserted that they have 200 people on the staff. What in the world do they need 200 people for? Are they communicating with Democrats every day to get each show's talking points lined up?
Trump, meanwhile, celebrated Colbert’s canning in a Friday morning post on Truth Social.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” the president wrote.
“His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
I was a bit surprised members of Congress are expressing concern over this.
Maybe I should not be surprised over anything that happens with liberals. But to listen to them, we may see a congressional investigation into the programming decisions of CBS.
I find it hard to believe that the programming decisions of a TV network are somehow the concern of Congress. But yet here we are.
Good. Kimmel and Fallon will be next.
I haven’t watched late night talk shows since Johnny Carson left. I remember everyone talking about his show the next day, it seemed everyone watched it.
Don’t know of a single person who watches the likes of Colbert (or Fallon or Kimmel) - or watches the puerile SNL, which hasn’t been funny since Belushi left.
They say politics gad nothing to do with it but politics had everything to do with it because politics was what was losing all that money. Politics was also why they kept it going for as long as they did.
And from the congressional Democrats who made the political accusations? .....crickets.
This is worse than a refutation. It’s a refutation by their allies.
Didn’t the Biden pay a lot of money to the media? under covid and other ?
So maybe this is a result of those payments stopping..........................
And, what caused the “losses” ya morons?
Are they so STUPID that they don't get the connection?
That probably means that A-Hole Colbert will turn up in some future Communist Broadcasting System (CBS) show.
Translation: USAID dollars are no longer flowing to this DNC propaganda machine.
Colbert’s politics are the reason why they were losing all that money. His schtick works well in California but not in the Heartland. Weird how Gutfeld is in super left New York yet he has, by far, the more popular show. I often hear people talk about Gutfeld! the next day. Then again our County Mayor Glenn Jacobs is a semi regular. Colbert’s humor isn’t as racy but it’s far more nasty toward anybody without allegiance to the DNC.
There was nothing funny about the show - it was a ‘hate Trump and MAGA’ bore. I’m amazed it lasted this long.
Correct.
A SNL portion is funny, the one with Josh and (sorry) the black guy. Their jokes can be hilarious, especially when they (supposedly) write jokes for “the other”. Lawdy, talk about anti-PC!
Mind, I watch that only on YouTube, can’t stand the balance of SNL — might just as well watch 60Min.
The Colbert sh-show couldn’t be put out of its misery soon enough.
The failure to garner ratings was due to politics most don’t agree with, the resulting loss of money triggered the job loss.
There’s nothing mysterious about this.
Gee, maybe it lost money due to the show’s policy of making everything political……. But that’s too easy for most non CBS Executives to figure out…
To be fair and accurate, it was Colbert's shitty politics that caused him to lose 40 million per year for CBS.
Had he just been funny, and kept his ignorant, nasty, evil opinion to himself, he could have kept his show, but because he kept wanting to insert his obnoxious politics into his show, his show couldn't hold an audience.
As Michael Jordan said: "Republicans buy sneakers too."
The original black guy was Garrett Morris (before Eddie Murphy).
As the great, late Rush Limbaugh said, these late night shows exist to create segments that are “click worthy” and go viral. Especially the political jabs at conservatives, Republicans, PTA parents and Christians.
Basically, CBS isn’t getting USAID money flowing in through the complex web of shaddy, shadow government stooges. A lot of shows are dying off for the same reason I’d bet. The money spigot has been turned off.
You’re right...
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