CBS Ending Late Show after 2025-26 Season

[Georgie56 3661]

Shocking news:

 

 

Edited July 17, 2025 by Georgie56

[TVLurker 389]

All because Stephen Colbert spoke out against the lawsuit settlement?

[Archiva 20]

Will be very interesting to see what happens with the late night block.

[AKA 70]

The Great Media Knee Bending of 2025 continues. Pathetic. 

[carolinanews4 455]

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/

[Glimmer 340]

1 minute ago, carolinanews4 said:

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/

At this point who’s to say Skydance will even take over

[SDHIll1980 150]

18 minutes ago, Archiva said:

Will be very interesting to see what happens with the late night block.

 

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by SDHIll1980

[AmericanErrorist 267]

(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/

Edited July 18, 2025 by AmericanErrorist

[Glimmer 340]

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

Edited July 18, 2025 by Glimmer

[HanSolo 467]

But we’re not in danger of authoritarianism, right?

 

This. Is. Vile.
 

 

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

13 minutes ago, AmericanErrorist said:

(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/

 

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by TheRolyPoly

[phillynewslover 166]

I just got the notification from AP. What a shame. Colbert is the only late night host I still enjoy watching, other than Jon Stewart.

[HanSolo 467]

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

[nickp 393]

Wow If anything I expected a new host not a complete cancellation

[GodfreyGR 812]

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?)

[nathannah 2792]

Watch as they replace it with Funny You Should Ask reruns (and that is actually believable for this regime, sadly).

 

I really haven't watched Colbert as much because it's day after day of political jokes and his guest base has deteriorated that way too (it doesn't help that Paramount somehow has film franchises and stars that will not do press), but it's still an awful loss.

 

But like everything Paramount has been selling real estate-wise, they probably want to sell off the Sullivan like they did Television City, and you're not going to get Colbert in a Last Week Tonight-esque space at the Television Center, so they just decided to cut it off entirely. At least the Sullivan will have a glowing Broadway future in new hands.

 

I'm starting to fear that CBS will no longer be what it was by 2029 and that we'll be seeing the new management either go full in on the NFL, or just give up and run procedurals and reality into the ground, and they're the answer to the question 'which network dies first'. 

[Big Rollo Smokes 324]

If anyone thinks this has nothing to do with Paramount/Skydance capitulating to 47, then I have some proverbial oceanfront property in Montana for you all to buy.

 

The timing is all too coincidental. Don't be surprised if The Daily Show folds next.

[Hometown News 127]

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?

[l_miro 245]

30 minutes ago, nickp said:

Wow If anything I expected a new host not a complete cancellation

 

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.

 

5 minutes ago, Hometown News said:

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?

 

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

 

Edited July 18, 2025 by l_miro

[nickp 393]

BIG question What is CBS going to do? Just give the time slot back to local affiliates?

[HanSolo 467]

3 minutes ago, nickp said:

BIG question What is CBS going to do? Just give the time slot back to local affiliates?

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

[AmericanErrorist 267]

14 minutes ago, HanSolo said:

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

The statement CBS made was pretty clear that they aren't going to produce a replacement talk show.

[TVLurker 389]

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.

[GraphicsMan 345]

CBS affiliates will probably expand there news to an hour. But this is a big deal though. 

[HanSolo 467]

41 minutes ago, AmericanErrorist said:

The statement CBS made was pretty clear that they aren't going to produce a replacement talk show.

It was just a riff on the previous post