It’s almost as though the stated reason for canceling the show (losing money) is bullshit.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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The show was losing around $40m a year, and its audience was down over 30% over 5 years. In recent years late-night’s profits have “shrunk toward non-existent” [Bill Carter, author of The War for Late Night].
It used to be that they were a cheap but profitable way to keep viewers watching the local news. As news access has shifted online and real-time, the business case for late night has become more shaky. Even the brief respite of a decade ago with vitalised YouTube clips has gone, with Google reducing the amount paid for views far below the rates for broadcast. Guests, too, now prefer the more relaxed and convenient podcast appearance.
So NBC has cut output from 5 nights to 4, and got rid of Seth Meyers’ house band. CBS scrapped the post-Colbert slot entirely earlier this season. There may be strong political conveniences at play, but the business case is also valid.
The only thing that was suspicious was the timing.
I fully believe that it was a massive money loser. Colbert's wages alone were high. He apparently started at $6m per year and then got a new contract at $15m per year.
That might seem high, but at his peak Johnny Carson was making $25m per year. That was in 1991. So, $25m per year would be worth $55m today. But, that was in a 3-channel world where there weren't many options.
And these late night shows cost about $1.7 million per week to make, or about $75m per year.
So, it makes a lot of sense that it would be losing a lot of money. It also makes sense that they would be thinking about cancelling it.
But, it was also the #1 late night talk show. And that has been a really prestigious thing for the networks for decades. I think even if it was a money loser, I think CBS would likely have wanted to hold on to the #1 late night show for a long time, just for bragging rights. Being #1 in late night is also useful for cross-promotion. Colbert always interviews the stars of major CBS shows: Tracker, Ghosts, Matlock, NCIS, etc. And being the #1 show means it's the first place that Hollywood stars stop to promote their movies, etc.
I think it's more likely they would have tried some cost cutting, and they would have tried to outlast the other late night shows rather than being the first network to give up on late night talk shows.
The cancellation of Late Night isn't suspicious. But the timing of the cancellation of Late Night is very suspicious.
I think even if it was a money loser, I think CBS would likely have wanted to hold on to the #1 late night show for a long time, just for bragging rights. Being #1 in late night is also useful for cross-promotion. Colbert always interviews the stars of major CBS shows: Tracker, Ghosts, Matlock, NCIS, etc. And being the #1 show means it's the first place that Hollywood stars stop to promote their movies, etc.
Sounds like you don't have an MBA and don't like to ruin everything like they do because of it!
The numbers people can't even comprehend what you said sometimes.
Give it a few years and they'll be baffled by reductions everywhere else.
"There may be strong political conveniences at play,"
Not may... there are and they exist.
"but the business case is also valid."
No it isn't. Those statistics intentionally include the Covid pandemic era numbers to skew the data.
Colbert lost 10% of its viewers in the first few months of 2024. It’s not covid.
Interesting background. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe CBS could get better value for on-demand streaming if they improved the shitty Paramount+ UI
I am a huge fan of his show and watch every night, but I agree, the format is pretty dated. Even the idea of a house band barely makes any sense. I miss 'The Soup' and Joel McHale.
The "financial reasons" was they got their merger approved by the corrupt administration.
I hope he goes out with a bang and absolutely torches the place on his way out.
slotkin interview doesn't seem to suggest that. apparently the most grilling he can do is to a new york mayor about Israel's right to exist or whatever the fuck.
In other weekly ratings news, Greg Gutfeld’s Fox News show continued its dominance in the 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT time slot, averaging more than 3.25 million total viewers and 206,000 in the key 18-49 demo nightly.
That's so fucking weird to me. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised because everyone i know that watches Fox News doesn't just watch a show or two. They leave it playing 24/7.
Wow how great for the network and their advertisers...
well shit why didn't they try that before.
Just constantly say you're going to cancel it, like those stores that always have "going out of business" sales but never seem to go out of business
every time they're about to go out of business, a bunch of people come to the store and buy so much stuff that they keep the business afloat
He's losing to Gutfeld of all people and the show is losing around $40m a year. The only reason people are watching now is to the controversy/talk around the show.
He's an hour later, not on Fox which has specifically trained its captive boomers to consider all competing networks to be ideologically verboten and has ratings about equal to his competitors put together.
Which smashes Gutfeld when you do that, btw.
The question should really be why is there so much competition in the timeslot for a dying genre, followed by "who the fuck watches broadcast TV in 2025"