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Good Lord, what a time when networks used to PAY affiliates to run their programming.... When exactly did the tide shift from actual to reverse compensation? Retransmission Consent and Must-Carry rules debuted in 1993 and the only deals at the time were between corporations and their "sister" cable channels in the few places they overlapped. As companies consolidated, these overlaps became more common. KRON getting bought by Young was the lynchpin of the modern arrangement since NBC enacted onerous demands they did not want to follow. So they took their ball over to KNTV to rechristen themselves as NBC for the Bay Area. Other stations like WJXT and WISH followed because they either did not want to pay for network programming, or balked at the rate that they were being charged for network programming. And then, Perry Sook decided to shake down the cable companies at the source, demanding cash for the carriage of Nexstar's stations. Then the networks wanted their cut of this, and our jacked up form of paying for free TV exists to this day, but for how much longer? And most of the defections in recent years? CBS. Because they wanted more money. CBS shot themselves in the foot in Raleigh to get Media General / Nexstar to pay them more $$$. NBC gets on WRAL and runs with it since it's their best ratings EVER there. And with what just went down in Atlanta, they'll take their ball and go home where they can when it's not working.

I'd say ALL of the stations that pulled Politically Incorrect were that of Sinclair. They would later go on to pull that Nightline episode that read out the 9/11 victims and "almost" aired the John Kerry hit piece "Stolen Honor" around the 2004 election. This was the first time Americans were exposed to their antics as they were amassing more and more television stations across the country. Networks have such iron-clad contracts with their affiliates that there is virtually ZERO deviation from their offerings. 20 years ago, Jimmy Kimmel was delayed and even dropped form several stations, and it wasn't until only 2 years ago when WEAR in Pensacola was forced to air the show "live" at 10:35 after having an hour-long 10pm show for many years. Going back to 1993, rogue CBS affiliates like WJW (mired in bankruptcy under Gillett/SCI) were freely pre-empting shows like half of CBS This Morning and pushing David Letterman back to midnight for some random piece of syndication. They had already pushed Dan Rather back to 7pm to make their 6pm show an hour back around the time they regained the WJW call letters. I have to wonder if THIS was why they cut the deal with FOX (along with the other Gillett/SCI stations about to be sold to New World) instead of FOX getting the NFL and wanting to upgrade their affiliates. Did the other Argyle or CitiCasters (Taft/GreatAmerican) ending up under New World pull the same antics?

Worth keeping in mind that Kimmel moved to the early slot when Leno & Letterman were still on. ABC was planning for the future, when it was clear those guys were sunsetting. What a world where the dopey fat guy from The Man Show is basically the elder statesman of late night.

eh. We thought linear cable was a sacred cow and Comcast just purged that out of its system like it was nothing. Discovery, the must have at one time even 10 years ago, would now get rid of cable nets and shove almost their debt onto them. The sacred cow is sports. The entire business model is now built on it. Everything that gets in the way of that will be excised - ABC didn't flinch when they had to cut WPLG to get more retrans cash money. It's said ABC wanted more money for retrans and considered tieing up with WSFL, which is almost as good as dead air, but WSVN apparently was the better offer.

Ron Pereleman had already taken over Gillett Communications by the time Letterman debuted on CBS. The station simply netted more revenue from Murphy Brown reruns and delaying Dave to midnight. Of course, they never cleared Pat Sajak because of the hometown kid Arsenio Hall and WOAC 67 cleared Crimetime After Primetime. One has to remember that CBS cut payments to the affiliates in June 1992 and asked stations to repay 25 percent of what CBS had already given them. All that in the middle of a recession. There was already antipathy towards CBS among the affiliates even before they fumbled away the NFC rights. The Fox deal in that regard was a no-brainer for a station group like New World, which also benefitted from additional local revenue at the 10 p.m. hour and the News Corp. cash infusion.

Because they're not rebroadcasting that newscast?

Someone who knows more about the NBC union contracts might have to correct me here, but it's very possible that NBC has some operational efficiencies available that would make the costs of production slightly lower. A camera operator could be scheduled for an 8-hour shift with 4 hours working on Late Night and 4 hours working on SNL rehearsals. If the union has even a 5-hour minimum call, then they are "saving" money by moving people around, as neither show would theoretically pay for more than 4. I am fairly confident they moved Kimmel because, given the choice between Nightline and Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert, the young eyeballs these networks so desperately need are going to go to the latter.

ABC probably realized Kimmel was getting higher ratings. Also, have you seen Nightline lately? Episodes start with an opening teaser about stories that will be covered....and then immediately goes to the first break. WTF, ABC?

That looks awful.

That really unfair, especially that a lot of young tv personalities get to large markets in under 10 years more like 6 years a face pressure. A long time ago it would take a decade to hit a large market. Honestly I don’t like big markets personally I prefer small markets even with the shitty pay because at least you’re comfortable mistakes are made but at least you don’t have to deal with high pressure and inflated egos of being in a big market. I told myself if I reenter I’m not even gonna go my hometown, ima try to stay 30 and up. Kansas City is the most tolerable market.

Anchor and reporter Morgan Parrish is joining Good Day Philadelphia. She's a South Jersey native and is coming from Fox 35 in Orlando, FL. https://www.phillymag.com/news/2025/07/21/morgan-parrish-fox-29/

Not just the elder statesman of late-night, but if you exclude Nightline, Kimmel is long and by-far ABC's longest-running late night entertainment program. Like with CBS back in the day, ABC had multiple attempts to compete with Johnny Carson by copying the same formula as the Eye--depending on the year, it was either reruns of their primetime shows (and in some cases reruns from other networks), movies, sketch comedy (Fridays), or talk shows that didn't last (Joey Bishop, Dick Cavett, and Rick Dees in the early '90s). Their In Concert series on Friday nights (and sometimes Saturdays) was fairly successful, but even that eventually gave way once some more music concert shows (like MTV's Unplugged) started migrating more to cable. Then, of course it was ABC's cancellation of Politically Incorrect in 2002 that paved the way for Jimmy Kimmel Live in the first place, after Bill Maher made controversial comments about the George W. Bush administration's handling of the military after the 9/11 attacks. PI lost sponsors and some ABC affiliates after the comments, and its declining ratings contributed to its eventual cancellation. In a roundabout way, Jimmy Kimmel owes his late night career to his former Comedy Central colleague Bill Maher.

It's a murder of how to manage a logo. You could drive a truck between the O and X. Tighten that up and it's a forgettable bad logo.

It's not bad. It's just basic and really really boring. =

Yes but has continually been maintained. Comcast/UniversalNBC bought most of the floors NBC and NBCUniversal occupy (the remaining floors are owned by a real estate firm) and have received many city benefits to maintain the upkeep and upgrades as needed. Because of the building's landmark status, it cannot be left to go to crap, and all changes NBC makes are reviewed and approved. This includes the changes made to house both WNBC and T47 in Studio 3B, as well as their new high tech newsroom on the 2nd floor. Although some studios occupy old radio studio footprints, the building is a far cry from the original look or even when converted for mostly tv broadcasting in the 40s. It helps it was originally built as a broadcast facility, as compared to CBS whose facility was a dairy. Today, most NBCU east coast operations are at 30 Rock, the exceptions being NBC Sports (Stamford) and pre spinoff CNBC in Englewood Cliffs (which serves as soon to be Versant cable channels transmission hub) now that T47 has been relocated to 30 Rock.

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.

Reading that, it makes sense now why Seth's Tuesday show is more 'evergreen' with no new "A Closer Look", with it taping two shows on Monday; I was curious as to why they upload the full A-block on that day and not other days to YouTube. (Yes, I'm part of the problem in that I consume the show there rather than on DVR, but I also hope that Peacock eventually fulfills their promise to have NBC's late night at 9pm ET, which they got talked out of by people who don't look so smart five years later) It also helps that NBC owns 30 Rock and knows every part of the building inside and out, while the Sullivan, despite all the work done over the years, is still an old adapted theater building that needs constant upkeep, along with a full office building above it that isn't much better. I've also noticed many fewer musical guests on late night, and many more of them have adapted the COVID era allowance of taping them elsewhere on location just because that reduces a lot of union expense to set up the stage for one performance (CBS used to do "Live on Letterman" extended performances, but that died with his version). Really, The Talk cancellation was the first sign of distress for CBS; they could've easily just added even more sponsored content to keep the show profitable but knew it would turn off viewers, and by the end its guest base was pretty much down to whoever they could get from CBS prime time on a taping dark day. And there was no way The Gates would work being taped in California thanks to Georgia's tax credits alone. If we're just looking at CBS's real estate, they have by far the oldest and most depreciated portfolio of studios and facilities; 30 Rock may be old, but it has a solid foundation and walls to work around, and the Iger building is basically a reset and clean slate for ABC. Even with the cost savings of switching every light to LED, that building still has an old fridge of an AC and is expensive to heat and cool, and despite the timing of the announcement, I think they just knew the economics of the show just can't work any more when you've gone from cars, P&G and films as your biggest advertisers to...Prevagen, Iberogast, and other various snake oil, along with legit prescription drug ads that will make anyone under 40 flee for YouTube and Netflix.

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).

ABC and CBS had cited production expenses, despite budget cuts done in preceding years, compared to falling ad revenue for their spate of soap cancellations between 2009 and 2011. All My Children relocated from New York to Los Angeles in a bid to lower costs and it still got the axe two years after the move. Again, even though soaps cost more to produce than a game show, it didn’t stop CBS from greenlighting Beyond the Gates, which still relies on union actors and production staff despite being filmed in Georgia (a right-to-work state with a production tax credit program). The Bold and the Beautiful (which is helped by its global distribution) does occasional international shoots, long after soaps cut on-location shoots to keep production expenses manageable.

Resurrecting this from the dead because this old package still lives on... on Blue Ridge Communications' weeknight local newscast at 5:00pm for the Poconos. EDIT: Also, for a cable company, they have a decent set.

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.

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.

This. Genuine question: would streaming not be a problem if studios and networks didn't make their content available on the internet thereby forcing people to watch TV??? If Craig Ferguson didn't want it, I always thought James Corden was the natural choice for the 11:35 PM slot. He had A list guests, good material for viral videos, and an overall lighthearted show which made him perfect to go up against Fallon and Kimmel. Colbert's primarily political approach to me felt natural against Seth Meyers at 12:37. I questioned why they would take a comedian famous or playing a character and give him an important show that required him to drop that character. All in all it worked out because Colbert has the highest ratings of the crop and outlasted Corden. Again, CBS probably wanted to make this move for a while, and the Trump situation finally pushed them to do it.

Didn’t the CBS Evening News‘s ratings struggles begin during the Rather-Chung era, though?

And now the WGA is breathing oxygen into the ongoing conflagration https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/writers-guild-bribery-investigation-colbert-cancellation-1236464878/ Even if CBS is being fully truthful, it doesn't matter. Colbert's fanbase and audience is already seeing it as nothing more than a political hit job and that's being baked in as we speak. If it is revealed as a political favor, then that's a scandal worse than Rathergate and the death knell for CBS. Simple as that.

Local on the 8s persisted at the :27 / :53 timeslots through the end of the 2pm ET hour today and then returned to :18 and :48 as of the 3pm ET hour. Very strange. I guess we'll see what happens during the morning hours over the weekend and especially during the weekdays next week.

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.

I was trying to scour on here and online -- Do we know of any "big name" anchors, etc. that might be headed here?

I personally doubt Trump had anything to do with it at all. All of these late-night shows have spent the past decade telling the same jokes about him that were probably already posted a million times on Reddit before their writers' rooms even thought of them, but the only one getting cancelled right now is the one on the network that's spent the last few years cancelling or giving away everything to save money. I always thought Colbert was a baffling choice to replace Letterman anyway. What made Colbert famous was the parody of Bill O'Reilly he did on the Colbert Report, but he had to retire the character to host the Late Show as himself. Without that character, it turns out there's nothing special about him in particular, thus there was no strong hook to keep Letterman's audience invested in the show. They should have just promoted Craig Ferguson instead. Yet another awful decision by CBS in hindsight.

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.

I've been watching AMHQ all week and the Local on the 8s were all normal except for what you observed today.

CBS is in such a terrible state right now maybe bringing Jeff Zucker back may be a good thing.... And that's after seeing what he did to NBC and CNN....

Promos are beginning to roll out for CBS Atlanta...

Spirit Halloween?

The franchise that David Letterman built is getting cancelled! As shaky as Late Night ratings have been I thought the cancellation of one of its mainstay shows was coming in a few years not next year! Then again, after Corden left Late Late it came out that production costs exceeded revenue which makes The Late Show's cancellation for business reasons believable....but bending to 45/47 is not implausible. I like Colbert but like Kimmel it's the same thing every night, Trump, for the last 10 years. It got stale which is why I prefer Fallon's show. He'll talk about you know whom and then move on to fun segments. Of all the networks why is CBS specifically struggling so much when it was once the most watched network?

Of course it's financial. Letterman's final Late Show episode got nearly 14 million viewers. A decade later, the Late Show has an audience of just over 2 million boomers who forgot to turn the TV off before falling asleep. It's not worth paying Colbert $15 million a year on top of the staff's salaries and the costs of maintaining that theater anymore, especially when its spot in the cultural milieu is now occupied by podcasts with postage-stamp budgets by comparison. Not to mention, this isn't new for CBS. This is the same network that was already too cheap to keep the SEC or the Grammys. They are cutting costs to the bone in any way they can. Not everything in life is hyper-politicized. Sometimes it actually is just about the money.

No! This is not what needs to happen, at all. This is how we're going to end up with more "Shovelcasts" (this is a new term I just invented, you're welcome) like Scrippscast being shoved into the schedule. Nobody is asking for more news, period, and any 11:30 newscasts that get created in summer 2026 are going to be canceled by November 4th of that year. Folks, we're talking about a genre that used to have 15 million sets of eyeballs a night. Colbert's "most watched" status is 16% of Carson's audience. Any profit the show makes is likely sliding every year, and it would not surprise me at all if the bean counters determined it would slide into "unprofitable" territory during his next contract. The Internet is the one holding the smoking gun here.

I’m going to be That Guy that is saying this has more to do with CBS dying on the vine than anything else. Giving Trump any credit for the cancellation of The Late Show completely and unnecessarily absolves Shari Redstone of blame for her mismanagement of Paramount Global and CBS, let alone her utter incompetence in trying to sell it all off. CBS was in awful shape prior to this. The cracks were showing during the SAG-AFTRA strike and were never repaired. Honestly I wonder if CBS even survives or just fades into oblivion like Dumont 70 years ago.

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.

This is just the first late-night show to get cancelled, it won't be the last. Like I said in another thread a while back, these shows offer nothing that podcasts don't. Is anyone under 50 even still watching them?

(as in will not produce a replacement talk show at 11:35) https://deadline.com/2025/07/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-next-year-cbs-1236461787/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DMOhWKsxT_G/

Either this... or the time is going back to the stations. If you're old enough to remember CBS Late Night/Late Movie before Dave Letterman came (or hell, before Pat Sajak and his ill-fated talker), if you know, you know. And that's if your local CBS station aired the network late-night block way back when.

KDVR & KFCT celebrated 25 years of "FOX 31 NEWS" last night. 25 Years & 4 different owners in that time. https://www.facebook.com/reel/768329848963791

The All-Star Game was last night and the entire lineup outside of Colbert was repeats, so it's probably just more of a 'nobody really noticed' kind of story, or they're waiting for word from CBS about what actually happened is more likely.

I have a feeling that this will be too much for him in the long run... Given his age, and the fact the is already so active on social media platforms and such... Unless he hires a social media manager (unless he has one and I don't know of it), he's going to burn out fast.... I wonder if this is a subtle hint of him retiring from 33/40 in the next few years?

Spann has said many times before Sinclair has given him the freedom to do what he wants to do (hints why they don’t do the CODE RED ALERT). This has probably been in the works for a number of years, but didn’t have the backing or tech to do this full time. Now when James does say he is over with 33/40, I would like to see him do weather for smaller community stations (think public access channels, low power stations, or maybe the last ma and pa radio stations).

On the heels of ex-WTVA chief Matt Laubhan launching Mississippi Live Weather, ABC 33/40 chief meteorologist James Spann is launching a 24-hour statewide streaming weather service, Alabama Weather Network, set to launch on August 11. Spann will remain with ABC 33/40, doing weather for its 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts as well as severe weather coverage as needed, while also appearing on ALWN. The venture is a co-partnership between Spann, hotel industry executive (and co-partner on Spann’s Alabama Weather Blog) Bill Murray, former ABC 33/40 meteorologist John Oldshue, and business and personal finance expert (and former Birmingham Barons president/GM) Bill Hardekopf.

They are solid when it comes to having a bench of backups. Makes sense to keep that pipeline flowing.

Exactly this. He tried to expand from an hour talk show and apparently nobody wanted to subscribe to his channel (or give out their email address to stream it on the TBN website). If someone wants to be the fool to part with their money to keep Dr. Phil afloat, they know exactly what they're doing at this point and that like most investments, it will likely turn out badly. We haven't heard the side of the creditors yet, and I'm sure they're not going to encourage people to trust him again.

You, and I, and others on this board may feel that way. But we can't speak for everyone else. There is an audience Phil is trying to reach, and if that audience wants his content they will find it. Remember that we now live in an era of narrowcasting, not broadcasting. Now, we can debate on whether this was a smart business move on McGraw's part, but that story will unfold in the long-term. But if you want him to go away, just don't watch.