CBS Ending Late Show after 2025-26 Season

[NowBergen 924]

14 hours 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/

 

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.  

[MediaZone4K 2661]

Reaction from frequent Daily Show guest host Charlamagne tha God. I'm waiting to hear Jon Stewart's reaction. As we debate the motives for the cancellation, the timing and optics are undoubtably terrible

 

Edited July 18, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[carolinanews4 455]

2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Two things can be true at once. Perhaps the Late Show was already on numbered days, and now the Trump lawsuit pushed Paramount to finally pull the plug.

 

This!!

 

I firmly believe money was a factor. It is a 200-person staff, and it is costly to produce. Given that they have been in cost-cutting mode for a while, it is logical that they see a big financial upside in axing this show. But it can also be true that the timing is suspect. The claim in their press release that it was "purely" financial is dubious at best. 

 

This is a problem that CBS made. When you pay out a multimillion-dollar settlement to avoid a lawsuit that should be in your wheelhouse to fight against, all your future decisions are viewed through an entirely new lens. If they had defended themselves in open court, they would be on better ground when they claim that shuttering their late-night franchise was exclusively fiscally motivated. But after that settlement, they will never get that benefit of the doubt. Sure, it's a cost-cutting move, but very few people - including myself - will see it solely as a balance sheet decision. 

[Hometown News 127]

2 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

I guess this was inevitable. Facts about the declining asset that is late night don't matter when you can spin it as "the show was solely cancelled at the behest of Trump".

 

https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-late-show-cancellation-reactions-adam-schiff-elizabeth-warren/

 

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by Hometown News

[Georgie56 3661]

CNN story on the decision to cancel the Late Show.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

33 minutes ago, Hometown News said:

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.

Unless CraigyFerg didn't want the 11:30pm slot, it's probably one of the worst moves CBS ever made in recent years.

[HanSolo 467]

This random middle of the summer, middle of the week axing does not suggest a primarily financial move. There is no show on their air that is pulling the numbers from its respective glory days. The soaps are a shell of their old selves, Price chugs along with nowhere near the audience it once had, etc. But the guy who savaged their capitulation to tyranny, he goes first. 
 

The saying “doesn’t pass the small test” applies in spades. 

[Action Newsroom 1376]

12 hours ago, Hometown News said:

 They should have just promoted Craig Ferguson instead. Yet another awful decision by CBS in hindsight.

 

12 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Unless CraigyFerg didn't want the 11:30pm slot, it's probably one of the worst moves CBS ever made in recent years.

He did not want it. He stated he was happy where he was hosting Late Late Show until he made his decision to leave for other projects (and it really was his decision) in 2014.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2025 by Action Newsroom
I don't know why that's funny, Ben & LTSC.

[SteveRichards 0]

Politics aside, and assuming CBS will be turning late night over to the affiliates, I would assume that most CBS affiliates would have preferred the network to cancel "CBS Mornings" and give that time period to the affiliates than leave them with a hole to fill on weeknights.

[T.L. Hughes 958]

3 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

I guess this was inevitable. Facts about the declining asset that is late night don't matter when you can spin it as "the show was solely cancelled at the behest of Trump".

 

https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-late-show-cancellation-reactions-adam-schiff-elizabeth-warren/

Trump has repeatedly slammed late-night comedy shows for years for making jokes and criticisms about him, and even mused publicly about having the FCC punish networks for satire on shows like Colbert, Kimmel and SNL that is protected by the First Amendment.

 

It was already reported that Skydance leadership might push for canceling Colbert and The Daily Show and reshape CBS News’ editorial independence to rid the company of what they consider a “liberal taint. The timing, days after Colbert criticized Paramount for settling a winnable lawsuit to get the Skydance deal over the line, makes it seem retaliatory or like capitulation to Trump. There were means to cut costs like asking Colbert to take a pay cut or eliminating the Late Show Band (like Late Night with Seth Meyers did with the 8G Band last year).

 

Unless Paramount can prove it considered cancelling the show before the settlement, I think it’s a mistake to automatically believe the pretext it was financial. Two things can be true: The Late Show was losing revenue for the network, and Paramount could have used that to sell the cancellation to the public despite the optics clearly suggesting otherwise. Because of the aforementioned circumstances, it’s justified that most critical of this decision don’t buy that financial metrics were key, when there were changes they could have made to prolong the show for a few more years.

 

Truly, we’ll never know unless a whistleblower confirms those suspicions, but one set of circumstances can be used to cover up an action done for indefensible reasons. Even if the financial circumstances that led CBS to dump The Late Late Show and @fter Midnight may have been an issue, treating it at face value as the reason for The Late Show’s demise given everything else may be unwise. After all, this is the same network that added a third soap opera to its lineup (Beyond the Gates, which CBS Studios produces) just this year, even though soaps are also relatively expensive to produce (the reasoning partly given for ABC’s move to pare back its soap lineup in 2011 to just General Hospital).

Edited July 18, 2025 by T.L. Hughes

[Rusty Muck 4688]

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[T.L. Hughes 958]

34 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

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.

Not even certain network insiders, CBS and Late Show employees buy its purely financial.

Quote

 

Several network sources told The Independent that while they understand that Colbert’s program had become costly to run over the years, and was potentially a drain on the network’s bottom line, many people working at CBS don’t fully believe the narrative coming from upper brass about the cancellation.

 

One senior staffer at CBS, for instance, said that no one at the network “is buying that it's a financial decision,” adding that the demise of the CBS flagship left “everyone stunned,” including “famous comedians” that the source said they knew.

 

[…]

 

Another network staffer said they were told the show had been “on the chopping block” for a few years because it was “very expensive to produce.” At the same time, though, this insider said that they didn’t believe this was the reason behind the sudden announcement on Thursday.

 

“Many of us think this was part and parcel of the Trump shakedown settlement,” the staffer declared. Meanwhile, The Independent has also learned that staffers at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which is also owned by Paramount, are expressing concern that their program could be next.

 

 

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by T.L. Hughes

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

Well, if CBS doesn't want to spend money to produce TV programming, then they just might as well hang it up.

This was a hit job to push their sham merger through the approval process.

 

Unless they have a Byron Allen-like plan to produce garbage programming for as little as humanly possible.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

22 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Not even certain network insiders, CBS and Late Show employees buy its purely financial.

Which is hardly unexpected. It's almost as if this is being done to manipulate sentiment on the left side of the aisle.

22 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

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.

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.

[HanSolo 467]

That linear television was withering and that this has appeasing the cretin in the White House with or without a direct quid pro quo are not mutually exclusive, nor automatically dismissed as conspiracy theories. We need only look at what’s happened the past approximately 6 months for ample evidence of acquiescence when only the faintest suggestion that being on the wrong side of those in power is a very bad idea. It’s also not limited to broadcasting.
 

We have all seen with our own, not-conspiracy-tainted eyes what happens when they decide to target a person or entity. That chilling effect has been more than enough to achieve their goals. 
 

It is autocracy. Perhaps a uniquely “American” version of it, but calling it what it is does not equate to being a crackpot conspiracy theorist. 

[Rusty Muck 4688]

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[mre29 1967]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

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.

 

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.

 

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

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.

 

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.

 

1 minute ago, Rusty Muck said:

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 the death knell for CBS. Simple as that.

 

Under any normal (read: non-Trump) presidential administration, it would be a major scandal and, one would think, likely scuttle the merger. Alas...

 

[T.L. Hughes 958]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

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.

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:

Quote

 

The CBS argument is that advertising has dried up in late night, and it’s hard to dispute that it has diminished substantially. At the start of the 2024–25 season, NBC reacted to the economic pressure by dropping one night of The Tonight Show and cutting the band on its 12:35 a.m. entry, Late Night.

 

But CBS did not try any of those cost-saving moves—or any cost-saving moves at all. It simply cut off the franchise at the neck. It seems especially abrupt considering that CBS earlier this year had quietly renewed its 12:35 a.m. show After Midnight—and only reversed course (execs insist) when Taylor Tomlinson quit the show. All of which is to say that as of just a few months ago, every indication was that CBS intended to maintain its two-hour late-night block into the foreseeable future.

 

Something happened to change that. Did the cost situation become completely untenable? Or was it Colbert’s Trump-centric comedy that become completely unacceptable?

 

If it’s the latter, it’s a dark moment not just for late night but for all of television. One of the signature achievements of America’s separation from rule by kings has been the freedom to mock its leaders without fear of reprisal.

 

The move is most reminiscent of a previous example of CBS caving to pressure when the network forced the cancellation of the very successful Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour under pressure from the Johnson administration because of anti-Vietnam sketches. At that time, CBS blamed some contrived contractual violation (and eventually lost a lawsuit over the cancellation).

 

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by T.L. Hughes

[Rusty Muck 4688]

11 minutes ago, mre29 said:

Under any normal (read: non-Trump) presidential administration, it would be a major scandal and, one would think, likely scuttle the merger. Alas...

Doesn't matter. When half the population believes CBS is a puppet for the gelatinous pile of goo that used to be the "republican party", they simply won't watch. There was never a congressional inquiry into Rathergate AFAIK but it was absolutely damning for CBS News, torpedoed Dan's career, nuked 60 Minutes II and set the CBS Evening News to a near-permanent state of ratings miasma, no matter what they do or format they take.

 

Yes, half the population hates Fox News and they're still on the air. The difference between them and any other broadcast entity is that Fox is propped up with insane retransmission revenue from cable and satellite, thus, they don't need to have any actual advertising (the existing advertising ecosystem for right-wing media is simply a bonus). CBS would be permanently injured with an audience defection of any sort.

Edited July 18, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[ABC 7 Denver 1889]

Just now, Rusty Muck said:

Doesn't matter. When half the population believes CBS is a puppet regime for the gelatinous pile of goo that used to be the "republican party", they simply won't watch. Rathergate was damning for CBS News, torpedoed Dan's career, nuked 60 Minutes II and set the CBS Evening News to a near-permanent state of ratings miasma, no matter what they do.

 

The difference between Fox News and any other broadcast entity is that Fox is propped up with insane retransmission revenue from cable and satellite. CBS would be permanently injured with an audience defection of any sort.

 

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

[Breaking News 888]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/david-ellison-fcc-chairman-paramount-skydance-deal-1236319811/

[T.L. Hughes 958]

15 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

Doesn't matter. When half the population believes CBS is a puppet for the gelatinous pile of goo that used to be the "republican party", they simply won't watch. There was never a congressional inquiry into Rathergate AFAIK but it was absolutely damning for CBS News, torpedoed Dan's career, nuked 60 Minutes II and set the CBS Evening News to a near-permanent state of ratings miasma, no matter what they do or format they take.

 

Yes, half the population hates Fox News and they're still on the air. The difference between them and any other broadcast entity is that Fox is propped up with insane retransmission revenue from cable and satellite, thus, they don't need to have any actual advertising (the existing advertising ecosystem for right-wing media is simply a bonus). CBS would be permanently injured with an audience defection of any sort.

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

[Rusty Muck 4688]

3 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

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

Dan Rather survived being paired with Connie and the major affiliate defections even while being in third place the whole time. Since Rathergate, they've changed anchors more that I change my socks.

[l_miro 245]

 

38 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

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

 

No. It is said that viewers hated Dan Rather's Texas vernacular and his signoff but not enough to tune out. He was #1 from 81-89 I believe. Then ABC brought Peter Jenings and he took the lead, #1 from 1989 until '96 when Brokaw started placing first.

 

Whatever issues legacy media has are all self-inflicted.

I'm a bit of a Maurice DuBois fanboy but I find the new format appealing. He and John Dickerson come off solid. Hasn't made me watch because I no longer care but what little I've seen, I liked. It didn't make me want to tune out

Edited July 18, 2025 by l_miro

[NowBergen 924]

1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

LateNighter’s Bill Carter pointed out that CBS has canceled a show due to political pressure before (back in the 1960s) a

 

I'm not sure comparing what happened to the Smothers Brothers in the 60s to this situation is valid.  TV was different back then, and conservative (remember, married couples could not sleep in the same bed, children just magically happened).  The Smothers Brothers kept pushing the limits with their anti Vietnam war stance beyond the accepted network standards back then. and had already worried Paley et al.  CBS News was top rated, with Walter Cronkite perceived as the authority of news, the most trusted person in America.  President Johnson worked quietly to pressure CBS but they already had been on thin ice.  

 

Today, CBS is in the midst of a pending merger, just gave in to the authoritarian's extortion when they did nothing wrong, and is the object of constant criticism by him and his followers, as well as his taking victory laps today and naming his next target.  Two very different situations.  The issue is CBS didn't appear to do anything to improve the financials.  The savings from ending the franchise, ending the talent contracts, terminating all others (and probably selling the Ed Sullivan Theater) was too enticing.  The problem is it was done in the face of all the other crap and it makes most very skeptical that it had nothing to do with it.