Free Republic

With Stephen Colbert canceled, and Morning Joe in perilous straits as MSNBC is discarded by its parent company, could Joe Scarborough be making a pitch for a late-night gig? The question arises in light of Scarborough's antics and bell-ringing stunt this morning, bringing to mind a late-night host's desperate bid for laughs.Scarborough went on a rant against Tulsi Gabbard's White House briefing room appearance in which she laid out accusations against Obama in connection with Russian-collusion conspiracy claims about the 2016 election. During vaudeville days, a judge would ring a bell to remove failed acts from the stage. Claiming that...

Colbert killed comedy. Then comedy killed his show.The Late Show was born out of the desperation of CBS executives to poach David Letterman. Johnny Carson had decided to bring his unchallenged reign over late night to an end. The future of the Tonight Show was up between Jay Leno, a hard-working comic, and Letterman, the darling of media types in New York, who had the hip alternative Late Night show. NBC settled on Leno, who underwent the first of a series of bastings by the chattering classes for upstaging one of their favorite cringe comics, while CBS created the Late...

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld cheered Hunter Biden after the former president’s son went on a profanity-laced tirade, tearing into members of the Democratic establishment who he says undermined and mistreated his father toward the end of his presidency. “But Democrats, if you listen to him … what have Democrats been trying to do? All six months. Try to be authentic. They try to fake swear, do a lot of theater. That’s real swearing,” Gutfeld said after watching the interview Biden gave to YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan. “You gotta give it to him. That guy is authentic, he’s the real...

first segment - the legality of autopen pardons; second (beginning at the seven minute mark) - one family's harrowing story of the flood; third segment (beginning at the twenty minute mark) - Cruz not being tired of winning when it comes to Stephen Colbert getting canceled

After announcing the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS is hard at work searching for a better program to replace their old flagship. Here are ten great ideas that would be way better than The Late Show:Larry The Dying Leper: This show is just watching a man slowly die of leprosy. Way funnier!Kidney Stone Watch: 90 straight minutes of a dude trying to pass a kidney stone.That old "KaBoom" infomercial with Billy Mays on loop: Such a classic.Cemetery Cam: Nothing but a livestream from a camera at a cemetery. Big upgrade, CBS.The Ingrown Toenail Experience: Way less...

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...

A real comedian is not a barking moonbat on a soapbox. He knows his job is to entertain us, not to install our political opinions. The great Johnny Carson reminds us of better times for late night television: **VIDEO ON LINK**

“So, for the first time in history, Americans have stopped watching NBC, CBS TV, and ABC,” reported commentator Bill O’Reilly Thursday. “Their viewing level has fallen below 20 percent — unheard of.”“And it’s because they’re boring and they’re far left,” O’Reilly elaborated. “That’s the two reasons.”The latest casualty of this legacy-media collapse is notable, too.CBS is canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, effective after the 2025-’26 season.The move will end what will have been a 33-year run that began with host David Letterman in 1993. Colbert took the show’s helm in 2015, shortly after Letterman’s retirement.The news-making announcement has...

The ratings are in for the second quarter of 2025, and things remain competitive across late-night, with Stephen Colbert holding onto the top spot in his hour and Greg Gutfeld dominating his slot, and having huge gains year-on-year. According to LateNighter.com, citing Nielsen ratings, CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert topped the 11:35 pm hour in total viewers with an average of 2.417 million across 41 first-run episodes. The Late Show was also the only program to show an increase over the first quarter, with the show up 1%. In the coveted 18–49 demo, Colbert brought in 219,000 viewers....

NEW YORK, NY — Along with NPR and PBS, a state-run propaganda program hosted by Stephen Colbert announced it would be shutting down due to a loss of funding. The Late Show, filmed at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, transitioned from late-night comedy to officially sanctioned state-run propaganda in 2015 with the hiring of Colbert. Though known for his comedic work at the time, Colbert was reportedly eager to promote government-generated information initiatives in exchange for money. "I thought maybe our ratings were down, but CBS informs me that's not why they fired me," Colbert said, addressing the cancellation on...

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...

Stephen Colbert was receiving messages of support and affection from his fellow late-night hosts after announcing that CBS was canceling his show, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” next May. Jimmy Fallon said he was “just as shocked as everyone,” and Seth Meyers called him a great host and comedian but an even better person. Jimmy Kimmel directed an expletive at CBS, and Andy Cohen said it was a sad day for the network. As for President Donald Trump — a frequent target of Colbert’s comedy — he said on Truth Social that “I absolutely love” that Colbert was “fired.”...

Everybody was shocked — shocked! — when Stephen Colbert announced this week that CBS canceled “The Late Show.” The despondent media reacted like a meteor was about to smash into Earth. But how surprising was Colbert’s kibosh really? Did peoples’ jaws also hit the floor when Blockbuster Video called it quits in 2014? Were they muffling their screams when blimps were phased out for air travel in 1937? “What do you mean ‘no more silent films’?!” The end of “The Late Show” was every bit as writ-in-stone as any of those predictable downfalls. And it’s not only Colbert. The Grim...

In the early to mid-1980's I watched an episode of ABC's Nightline hosted by Ted Koppel. The topic was on the plausibility that there were still Americans being held captive or were held captive after the war in Vietnam. I don't remember who the guests on the program were. What I do remember is a black & white photo that the program showed. It was a photo of a half-dozen or so Caucasian-looking men standing together. They appeared to be wearing what could have old worn uniforms or work clothes. I believe on one corner or side of the photo...

Rush Limbaugh / Al Gore 1992 Nightline debate part 1

This 1981 episode of Nightline about computers is more relevant today than it was back then. People should be discussing an Internet Bill of Rights. https://youtu.be/3H-Y-D3-j-M  

ABC’s Nightline has returned to its old timeslot with a larger audience after late local news (instead of after Jimmy Kimmel Live). On Wednesday’s show, co-host Byron Pitts ended an interview with Vice President Mike Pence by asking him “not in a political way,” but whether he “talk[s] to God” about feeling remorse for Americans who have died “because of steps the federal government did not take soon enough.” So here we had a journalist ask the Vice President if he prays to the Lord with a heart of repentance for having been responsible for dead Americans. Surely, Chuck Todd...

ABC’s Nightline has returned to its old timeslot with a larger audience after late local news (instead of after Jimmy Kimmel Live). On Wednesday’s show, co-host Byron Pitts ended an interview with Vice President Mike Pence by asking him “not in a political way,” but whether he “talk[s] to God” about feeling remorse for Americans who have died “because of steps the federal government did not take soon enough.”

The new Supreme Court pick is very “controversial,” whoever he or she turned out to be. That was the consensus of ABC’s Nightline. About 90 minutes before Donald Trump announced the name of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Nightline’s Twitter page blasted: Again, they didn’t have a name (or any news outlet for that matter), but this mysterious person was “controversial.” Later in the evening, the Nightline account weeted out a “correction” to explain what the network journalists meant to say: As the MRC’s Rich Noyes noted on Monday, networks routinely label “conservative” judges and skimp on “liberal” labels for Democratic nominees.

What has happened to Katie Couric’s career? On Tuesday’s Nightline, she was reduced to “interviewing” sex robots who want to “make love” to her “sexy ass.” Though Couric occasionally questioned the moral cesspool that is the coming sex robot industry, the segment was mostly a promotional for it. While chatting with “Harmony,” she listens as the sex robot tells her: “I like books, computers, making new friends. I also love making love to you.” “Harmony” continued: “I want to be your best friend and much more.” The former anchor of the CBS Evening News responded: “Maybe not the much more...