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I wouldn't trust a quote from the New York Post as much as I could throw a knuckleball effectively.

Yes, it's the Post, but they're making the same point I did, that late night's advertising base has declined and you're apt to see a Bulbhead as seen on TV product these days more than you will something like a high-income earner product like perfume, or a lot of prescription drug ads (I feel like half their breaks feature at least one PrEP ad). That might be fine for an MTV2 Wayans Bros. repeat or Perry Mason on MeTV (which you can argue the retro networks do take a major bite out of late night's HUT audience for politically-exhausted viewers). It certainly isn't for a late night show, but it's across every network, including Comedy Central and has nothing to do with politics, but more that audiences are exhausted with advertising in everything they watch. There was the bite earlier this week where Jon Stewart admits that without him and South Park, Comedy Central is a shell of a network, and we're starting to see the underinvestment in cable now bleed into broadcast. It's been that way even before COVID, and that momentum the form had is gone.

I can't wait for the day the entire TV industry collapses under its own greed. All it takes when they jack up their demands for a slate of programs that would make Byron Allen's output look appealing. Basically when the NFL pulls their games off Broadcast TV because it won't be financially feasible anymore.

I don't think it's fair to say they "didn't consider" things, because again, we lack the information. "Financial reasons" could, for all we know, have included starting on negotiating Colbert's next contract, and him going "$25 million and I keep the band, or I walk!" and that made it financially unviable. Guess which conspiracy theory narrative works out better for his PR? Some industry analysts are starting to doubt Kimmel or Fallon will be around in 5 years, either. Someone at 11:35 had to be first to go, and we've already seen late night talkers in different time slots (Corden, Conan) go already. There are fewer soaps on then there used to be, and soaps have never really been known for high production values and expenses. Price probably costs very little to actually produce, as it's all product placement, and they can be efficient with time and tape multiple episodes a day. Late Show, however, is paying for Colbert's fat contract, plus expenses and fees for celebrity guests. These genres are all very different things and have very different profit margins.

So I wasn't able to pull the KLAS newscast off in this next batch. But it's coming. I see the tape in the stack. However, I did find my oldest Boise newscast ever. Here's a mix of commercials and an election night update from KBCI 2 on November 5th, 1985 And the newscast aforementioned. KIVI NewsWatch 6 Nightcast, September 25th, 1985! Open to KING 5 News on 12/14/1997, Allen Schauffler and Lori Matsukawa and in this Today clip from September 5th, 1986, we get a segment on Jolt Cola with Bryant Gumbel, a KING 5 News update with Don Madsen and an ASL interpreter (very unique for a commercial TV station), and their own Jean Enersen joins Bryant as the co-host!!!

My theory is that a lot of the non-writing staff for Meyers's show (camera operators, stagehands, cue card wielders) also work on SNL and thus have to work on Saturdays, so the doubling-up on Mondays is solely to allow them to have Tuesdays off.

Wait. George Cheeks makes the decision, he tells Colbert Wednesday night, and THEN he tells Shari Thursday morning?!? This story not only throws George under the bus, it tramples him over with a marching band, stomps him over with a herd of elephants and runs him over with a freaking steamroller.

Also think it needs to be asked: If Trump was behind this, why is it taking so damn long? If Trump was the one pressuring CBS, then you'd have to assume he'd want Colbert gone now, not give him carte blanche to ratchet up the attacks for almost a year.

Known for some time, today was retirement day for KSDK's Kay Quinn after 36 years.

Not even certain network insiders, CBS and Late Show employees buy its purely financial. Also, autocrats in many countries have used shakedowns, rather than arrests, to silence TV satirists who criticize them, putting pressure on broadcasters to kick those satirizing them off the air. If anything, believing blindly this isn’t suspicious willfully ignores how this has been a part of the autocrat’s playbook for years. Trump and many members of his administration have shown they don’t revere the First Amendment that gives Colbert the right to hold them accountable through comedy and commentary. It is not assigning him superpowers.

After they paid trump's extortion, their credibility isn't all that high. This is a coincidence to be very skeptical of. Worse, trump is all over social media celebrating.

40 years ago yesterday (at the time of this post)... June 17th, 1985 at 3:00 p.m. ET:

I think it was Matt Belloni at Puck that pointed out Lorne Michaels is a producer on both Tonight show and Late Night…he still has a lot of power at NBC. I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC wanted to axe Late Night but Lorne pulled some strings and got it renewed with a reduced budget. Wasn’t Seth pulling in lower ratings than After Midnight? And after Midnight was canceled.

The swap was mainly because WSJV is the ATSC 3.0 lighthouse in South Bend (their pet project, of course, with their 1.0 subs spread across WSBT, WHME and even WNIT) and they transmit from the WSBT tower, so they pulled the swap since SInclair doesn't have a sister station in Peoria and FAIAP WEEK had been controlling WHOI anyways. I was surprised when I read it myself a few weeks back. And WSJV does carry SBT2/Fox in 3.0 format so you are correct in a roundabout way that it did come back home. ----- Meanwhile an update on the WTMJ meteorologist situation; Tyler Moore posted that he is leaving the industry because of exhaustion (on a self-described in-market 'dream job', so you have to wonder how much pressure Scripps/station management puts on their young hires); And because of that, Michael Fish is back on a freelance basis.

I didn't know about this until now... apparently at some point this year, Gray and Sinclair filed with the FCC to swap stations and have since been consummated. South Bend: Sinclair now owns both WSBT and WSJV. Peoria: Gray now owns both WEEK and WHOI. I'm not expecting them to go back to their former affiliation days (WSJV goes back to FOX and WHOI goes back to ABC), but this is interesting nonetheless but happened under the radar.

Not far off. Current NFL broadcast contracts run out 2034 with 2029 optout. The NBA got $76 billion recently, and Goodell had a cow over it. He keeps yelling about the deals being severly undervalued and renegotiations in '29. He seems to think YoutubeTV and Netflix will play ball and pay for it

The audience is not there and affiliates would likely revolt over such a move. I think the best course of action for Colbert, Kimmel, etc… would be to find a different avenue to voice their opinions, offer engaging discussions, etc.. in which they have control and don’t have to worry about a corporate overlord.

I doubt CBS' stake in 'Beyond the Gates' is a huge one. They have two other partners (Procter and NAACP), one of which has a very long history when it comes to soaps. I'm sure each party ran every scenario possible to make the financials work. I'm going to avoid going down the rabbit hole about the cancellation of 'The Late Show..' and suggest that CBS could tryout a 'Daytime at Nighttime' situation next Summer as a trial run and 'if' it works, it will become permanent. I can't see them giving the time slot(s) back to the affiliates if the risk vs reward, if you will, is minimal (i.e.. money can be made).

As of today Rincon Broadcasting has officially acquired the 7 stations from Imagicomm.

In 1948. PBS does nothing that people care about. Here in North Carolina PBS has ~90,000 donors 90,000 ... across 12 broadcast stations, out of 11,000,000 population! A literal statistical insignificance. Goofy UFO podcasts have more supporters than that. South Florida PBS barely over 40,000 donors. In area where the average dinner for two can run $200+ People do not care. They say they care because Trump is slipping through their Xanax half-life and they want more social likes but they really don't. They care in the same way Baptists insist they absolutely, unequivically go to church every Sunday. Which is to say they lie. Besides, the local retirement community now has Netflix and BritBox.

No they're not. Just because KCRG is using Enforcer now, doesn't mean they'll use CBS Local come GrayONE. More than likely, Gray will be switching them to either Unite, Ascend, or some other SAM package that's not CBS-themed.

39 years ago: history was made. The event that made KARE 11 and Paul Douglas famous. The event that turned KARE 11 from a laughstock to a contender in the ratings in the Twin Cities.

Half? More like a 3rd. Only ~66% of the voting population even participates. This coming from an Officer of a state Democratic party (me).

LateNighter’s Bill Carter pointed out that CBS has canceled a show due to political pressure before (back in the 1960s) and notes that NBC had taken cost-cutting measures at The Tonight Show and Late Night over the past year that CBS didn’t even consider: Considering the abuses of power during this administration, it isn’t a “sky is falling” situation. There’s genuine concern (and they’ve given plenty of reason for us to believe) Trump and company are undermining American democracy and trying to consolidate power (some actions being a matter of seeing how much they can get away with, and the Supreme Court now rubberstamping a lot of Trump’s actions on dubious legal grounds, whereas they were a bit of a mixed bag during his first term, and weakening lower courts’ ability to fully check his unconstitutional actions). Authoritarianism is not simply arresting and murdering political opponents and shutting down legislatures, it can take root through other forms of abuses including, but not limited to, pressuring media outlets to self-censor.

No one here is calling it "nothing more than a political hit job"; heck, we don't even know if Trump or someone in his (mis)administration pushed for it or if CBS and/or the Ellisons came up with the idea to help get the merger approved. But the timing is highly suspicious and the senators are right to ask questions. I'm guessing he's more interested in the studio and Paramount+. Maybe he's nostalgic for MTV and thinks he can make it great again. Under any normal (read: non-Trump) presidential administration, it would be a major scandal and, one would think, likely scuttle the merger. Alas...

Which is hardly unexpected. It's almost as if this is being done to manipulate sentiment on the left side of the aisle. Look, I'm going to say my peace here. I'm highly, highly distressed seeing people fall for conspiracy theories on here and on RadioDiscussions over the past few days. I've personally been in contact with @Weeters about this behavior on social media and it legitimately sounds like the left is falling for the exact same "this is autocracy and Trump is consolidating power" like it's an endless Sarah Kenzidor thread from 2016. There's also people continuing to amplify the falsehood that the election was rigged or that the shooting in PA last July was fully staged. Absolutely scary stuff. Everything is not okay. Loathsome, slimy vermin are indeed at the controls. But it is also not okay to not have any semblance of perspective. And linear media was dying long before November 2024 and Paramount Global was dying under Shari Redstone and I will die on those two hills. It's not autocracy but talk that that plays right into the hands of the aforementioned vermin.

Trump (or whomever is running the "Truth Social" account for that dementia-riddled barely sentient corpse these days) would take credit for Kimmel or Colbert having a hangnail. By calling the cancellation of The Late Show or Kimmel retiring after his contract run out (which Kimmel has talked about for years) nothing more than a political hit job, you're giving Trump superpowers he doesn't have. Which is why I consider Sens. Schiff and Warren's comments out of line because, besides being ineffectual, they further conspiracy theorists. Larry Ellison's son is probably more content with DuMonting CBS and jettisoning the owned-stations to Nexstar. CBS doesn't serve a purpose for him in the same way NBC Radio did not serve a purpose for GE in 1986.

It probably depends on market and how well funded they are from outside sources. I just read a state PBS/NPR in a small state but medium sized city will lose about 10% funding. My gut says that may be an low estimate but time will tell. That's bad, but not a kiss of death. Big market stations will need to do more fundraising but can probably survive. The real issue is money for program acquisition. Small markets/stations will have the toughest time as the federal funding makes up a much bigger part of their budgets and the ability for big donor fundraising in those markets is limited at best. When WNET first went on the air, the local network owned stations all contributed to the start up costs to get it on the air. Some media companies may consider some level of support to support the public interest - just not at levels lost by this action.

KCNC NewsCenter 4 First News report on the station's new music packages in 1986. Features a young Suzy Nelson, who, at the time, was a freelance announcer for KCNC, and Jerome Gilmer, the composer of the music package.

It was just a riff on the previous post

we should merge all the late show threads into one. this is big news and it's best to have the conversation in one place than three.

With the constant bending of the knee, probably hiring Gutfeld or whatever his name is from Fox.

This was signaled by CBS 5 years ago. Colbert got signed for a 5-year deal. In 2020 they extended him for 3 years. And again in 2023 for another three. Compare to Jimmy Fallon started off with a 6-year deal, another 6-year deal in 2021 that got bumped to 2028. Jimmy Kimmel was similarly given 3 year bumps. Last one in 2022 and he's already hinted it would probably be his last. Late Show, and the format, is a dying horse. Late had 2.8 million viewers in 2015, 3.2 million in 2017, latest Q22025 is 2.3 million. That's 11 years of not only no growth at all, but ageing audience and loss of viewers. For $20 mil a year and staff who put and remove his mic on his lapel for 6-figures a year. Streaming can't and won't support that with Paramount+ suffering as it is. Not when they have to pay billions for the NFL. touche. And the podcasts don't have $70,000,000 to $100,000,000 budgets these shows are boomer advertising slop wrapped in a "show" format. Everyone who comes on for a scripted chat is there to sell something and go home

I just hope, since the franchise is ending entirely, that Colbert has Letterman back one last time to help close out the brand he built. Also got to wonder what happens to the Ed Sullivan Theater... Surely CBS sees a nice payday on the sale of the building (at least, I assume they own it outright?)

Not unexpected is ensuring any voice contrary to the regime will be silenced.

CBS affiliates are replacing it with local news at 11:35 p.m. in three, two, one... However, in all seriousness, this is a shock, yet not entirely unexpected. A shock that the franchise is ending, not unexpected, is that more and more people are tuning away from the late-night genre.

I could see CBS doing news in late night; I also wonder if they just decide to simulcast The Daily Show…unless they cancel that too

According to a statement by CBS it is a financial decision. It is quite the surprise. But then again, it shouldn’t be surprising at all. CBS has big money problems, and undoubtedly they are under pressure to shore things up before Skydance takes over. Also, it is easier for an outgoing regime to make unpopular decisions before the new crew comes in. https://deadline.com/2025/07/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-next-year-cbs-1236461787/

The Great Media Knee Bending of 2025 continues. Pathetic.

nah. The old guard just didn't have socials so the only way you'd know someone on TV had disordered personality would be to work with them or somehow interact. God forbid if they're the ND's or GM's favorite... newsies can tell stories. Just recently we learned about Barbara Walters, although discerning people would've picked up on what she's really like just by watching her interviews. The late Ike Seamans from WTVJ said this in the late 2000s too - most new talent coming in wants to see themselves on TV, not do journalism. The socials made this even more apparent and now they get to feed off it twice - TV *and* socials. All that's much harder to hide nowadays probably why you're noticing it and think there's more of it. It's always been there. Come to think of it the news business, from my interactions with people within it for 25 years, tends to attract a lot of unsavory people, narcissists primarily, who can feed off small things like saying they work at so and so station up to the fact they're on air and known. This especially true of the big-name stations. Which isn't to say there are no nice, normal people. I don't think you should let the messyness stop of you from trying out a career you might enjoy. I believe there's a video of Marilyn Mitzell, who used to work at WSVN, on Youtube where she specifically tells people - keep your head down, stay away from office drama - simple yet 90% effective imo. And if you land at a shop whose management does not suffer employee drama it very likely would end up being a very fulfilling career.

Gee, I never saw that one coming . Once upon a time, going from WSYX to 10TV was a move up.... My how times have changed....

WKRN's Davis Nolan is about to hang it up on August 22nd after a stellar and amazing 44 years there. https://www.facebook.com/daniellebreezytv/posts/bittersweet-day-my-friend-wkrn-davis-nolan-announced-he-will-be-retiring-on-augu/1280706163420280/

It may not be what people want to hear, but it is the truth: Byron Allen's hubris and utter incompetence destroyed the value of these stations. Whomever would buy them would have to sink embarrassingly large amounts of money just to get them back up to par with their competition. How is that not damaged goods? This FCC will simply let it happen thanks to kickbacks and bribes to Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty. And you think Perry Sook has ever cared about the viewers? His greed and lust for power makes R.J. Fletcher look scrupled. The Tribune purchase handcuffed them regulation-wise. It is no secret that Nexstar wants to buy the CBS owned-stations, Gray and Cox Media and even put out a press release stating they openly covet the ABC-owned stations.

KCRA at one point had a studio at Arden Fair Mall, The KCRA 3 Experience, where they produced their noon newscast.

Some awesome finds (not specifically newscasts) finally uploaded from an estate sale two years ago. KREM Northwest Gallery, February 18th, 1979. This was a newsmagazine that aired on Sunday nights And CLASSIC 60 Minutes!!!

As a longtime resident of Greenville and the Mississippi Delta, I can't help but feel a sense of disappointment over the frequent changes in ownership and the glaring lack of investment in our local television stations. Cox and even Imagicomm, as current owners, have not lived up to their responsibilities. It’s disheartening to think that an area struggling with economic challenges—one of the poorest in the nation—is served by station owners who seem indifferent to the needs of the community. The dedicated viewers and hardworking staff at these stations unquestionably deserve far better than what they currently receive. This mounting situation underscores the urgent need for a collaborative effort to rejuvenate our local media landscape. Our station, WABG, has the potential to shine; it simply requires modernization and owners who genuinely care about nurturing this small television market. Historically, the Delta's stations have lagged, often equipped with outdated technology that places them years behind other television markets across the state. If WABG could attain even half the production quality demonstrated by WLBT or KTVE, our community would feel far more satisfied and engaged with the local news coverage. It genuinely pains me to hear fellow community members express their disillusionment, many stating they no longer tune into our local news broadcasts and instead turn to sources from Jackson or Little Rock. The disconnect is palpable, and we must take steps to rekindle pride in our local news.

As we approach the 25th Anniversary of this classic show, here's 106 & Park's 9/11 reaction episode (2001)

The early days of cable TV...WTCG/Atlanta. Promos and station IDs from 1979, just prior to becoming WTBS:

26 years ago, my favorite GOAT broadcaster said goodbye to The Late Late Show. With After Midnight going away, I thought this would be appropriate to the ending of the first 12:30am show on CBS. https://youtu.be/od-xAkmSRw8?si=f-800Pk1nsnp2Xnl

It wasn’t a Pannoni channel but I cannot remember it for the life of me. All of a sudden I had a bunch of gray boxes on my YT favorites on my TV. I’ll find it and edit this.