CBS Ending Late Show after 2025-26 Season

[MediaZone4K 2664]

1 hour ago, l_miro said:

Whatever issues legacy media has are all self-inflicted.

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???

6 hours ago, Hometown News said:

 

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.

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[Weeters 2173]

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) 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:

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.

 

5 hours ago, HanSolo said:

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. 

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.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

Given that most cities only had three television stations in 1968 and that the controlling regime at the time was actually competent and evil, CBS's nerfing of Smothers Brothers was incalculably worse than this. In many cases the duo's career was hurt badly and took an inordinate amount of time to recover; they didn't have anywhere else to go to whilst Colbert will have Netflix or Amazon begging to hire him.

Edited July 18, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[Weeters 2173]

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.

[T.L. Hughes 958]

57 minutes ago, Weeters said:

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.

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.

Edited July 18, 2025 by T.L. Hughes

[Weeters 2173]

The New York Times is reporting that the show was already unprofitable, and had been that way for three years.

 

Quote

“The Late Show,” a fixture of the network for over three decades, was racking up losses of tens of millions of dollars a year, and the gap was growing fast, according to two people familiar with the show’s finances. Like other late-night shows before it, “The Late Show” was canceled when the network could not figure how to make the finances work in an entertainment world increasingly dominated by streaming.

 

So as CBS executives mapped out the schedule and budget for next year, George Cheeks, CBS’s president, decided in recent weeks that the network couldn’t take those losses any more, the two people said. Mr. Colbert learned of the decision on Wednesday night. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS’s parent company, learned about it on Thursday, according to two other people.

[...]

“The Late Show” began losing money at least three years ago, two people familiar with the finances said. Like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC, it cost more than $100 million a year to produce. CBS executives weighed the possibility of trying to find ways to sharply reduce its budget but, amid the mounting losses, concluded that there was not a viable path to profitability, one of the people said.

 

[Jase 1164]

20 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

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.

 

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). 

 

Edited July 19, 2025 by Jase

[nathannah 2792]

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.

Edited July 19, 2025 by nathannah

[HanSolo 469]

4 hours ago, Weeters said:

 

There are fewer soaps on then there used to be, and soaps have never really been known for high production values and expenses.

 

 

No one is saying it was high art, but even by the low bar set over the years, what’s left on the older two CBS soaps is comically bad in every aspect. They could throw on a repeat from 30 years ago and it would be the same plots, same characters, same sets et al. But they don’t risk challenging the powers that be. 

[l_miro 245]

4 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

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???

 

Short answer: seriously doubt it. Streaming lets viewers direct their attention to what they want, and forces them to prioritise time.

 

Long answer: 

 

The rise in streaming is part of nature. It was inevitable. But it's also the result of many proverbial chickens that came home to roost rather quickly. Ignoring YouTube, Tv show streaming started largely as a response to rampant bittorrent piracy of the mid 2000s. They were terified, shaking, of having to deal with another Napster when broadband started to take off. That's why NBC and NewsCorp created Hulu in 2008.

 

And they did try and force us to watch TV. Sued Sony way back when because the VCR recorded broadcasts. Sued DVR maker ReplayTV circa 2001 for having an ad skip built into the software. Screamed and hollered about ad skipping. Forced cable channel bundling. Remember CableCard? Or TVAnywhere - hey, you could stream your favorite show online!!! But... only if you log in with your CableTV user/password AND paid for the right TV package.

It was obvious when NBC and NewsCorp launched Hulu that broadcast TV stations are a middleman nobody needs, and will be screwed if streaming ever became popular. A lot of journos would literally utter words, describing how they are irreplaceable, that people will keep watching. People love the weather forecast on TV, all the viewer panels prove that's why they watch. Hazel and Fanny In The Morning (who hate each other's guts during the commercial breaks) are so relateable people just adore them.

 

Forgot: a lot of the current decisions are almost always made taking into account linear/broadcast and especially affiliates, who would understanably revolt since they're the ones shouldering the NFL/NBA expense handing over their retrans. Syphoning retrans also didn't help local stations, which already lacked creativity how tackle streaming, or outright thought they're above it

 

Edited July 19, 2025 by l_miro

[Rusty Muck 4688]

1 hour ago, Weeters said:

The New York Times is reporting that the show was already unprofitable, and had been that way for three years.

 

 

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.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

I wonder if we're going to see the "Jay Leno" experiment resurface again by stripping away the 10/9p hour of network shows for a daily show or moving the 11/10p show up to fill that hour.

 

Half of the stuff that passes off as network TV is repurposed drivel.  When you're rebooting DAYTIME game shows and putting them on the schedule permanently....

 

That's one way the networks can reduce their overhead and make their affiliate base able to compete more.  Audiences want things earlier and maybe it's time for the (remaining) late shows to do the same.

[Jase 1164]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

I wonder if we're going to see the "Jay Leno" experiment resurface again by stripping away the 10/9p hour of network shows for a daily show or moving the 11/10p show up to fill that hour.

 

Half of the stuff that passes off as network TV is repurposed drivel.  When you're rebooting DAYTIME game shows and putting them on the schedule permanently....

 

That's one way the networks can reduce their overhead and make their affiliate base able to compete more.  Audiences want things earlier and maybe it's time for the (remaining) late shows to do the same.

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. 

[mre29 1967]

2 hours ago, nathannah said:

Reading that, it makes no sense 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.

 

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.

 

[nomadcowatbk 188]

6 hours ago, nathannah said:

 

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.

Isn't 30 Rock also old and needs constant upkeep and upgrades?

[NowBergen 924]

2 hours ago, nomadcowatbk said:

Isn't 30 Rock also old and needs constant upkeep and upgrades?

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. 

 

 

[Rusty Muck 4688]

15 hours ago, Weeters said:

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.

Golly gee, it's almost like Colbert could take a page from Conan O'Brien 15 years ago. Would you be surprised if Colbert goes too far on purpose and forces CBS to pull The Late Show off the air? Regardless of whether or not CBS would be justified in their actions, it renders Colbert as a political martyr.

Edited July 19, 2025 by Rusty Muck

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

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.

[l_miro 245]

5 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

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.

 

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

Edited July 19, 2025 by l_miro

[l_miro 245]

https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/media/cbs-ending-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-is-more-than-just-a-financial-loss/

 

$40-$50 milllion loss because it couldn't get advertisers 

 

Quote

 

“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” said a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision.

 

“Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”

 

 

 

Quote

“The Late Show” boasts nearly 2 million total viewers and 200,000 viewers in the key 25-54 “demo” — making it No. 1 in its time slot.

 

Brutal

 

It had 239K demo viewers in January, and 194K for June 2025
750K in 2018
692K in 2019
373K in 2022
280K in 2023
281K in 2024
219K in 2025 so far

Basically an irrelevant "show"

a cheesy Scrippscast has younger audience that this mess.

 

And he allegedly asked for $25 million... . Colbert isn't quite Ellen toxic but up there

 

Quote

The ad data firm Guideline estimates that CBS’s late-night shows together drew $220 million in ad revenue in 2024 — just half the $439 million they drew in 2018.

 

Quote

RedBird’s Jeff Shell, the former head of NBCUniversal who will run the network once the deal is done, has been crunching the numbers and finding that CBS is a “melting ice cube” with its losses and cost overruns, a source said. The plan is to enhance CBS Sports and invest in “truth-based” news at a network that conservatives have long ripped for its alleged liberal bias.

 

"The plan is to enhance CBS Sports"

 

as much money to sports, what's left goes to filler like 3D sets to avoid dead air.

 

maybe they can try iPad giveaways

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2025 by l_miro

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

6 minutes ago, l_miro said:

 

It had 239K demo viewers in January, and 194K for June 2025
750K in 2018
692K in 2019
373K in 2022
280K in 2023
281K in 2024
219K in 2025 so far

Basically an irrelevant "show"

a cheesy Scrippscast has younger audience that this mess.

 

If it wins it's timeslot and beats Fallon and Kimmel, how much worse off are those shows?
NBC and ABC are on much better footing though, at least for now.  CBS has been tanked by it's past and future overlords for years.

[Big Rollo Smokes 324]

53 minutes ago, l_miro said:

https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/media/cbs-ending-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-is-more-than-just-a-financial-loss/

 

$40-$50 milllion loss because it couldn't get advertisers 

 

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

[nathannah 2792]

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.

[atlnews2 631]

 

On 7/18/2025 at 10:36 PM, nathannah said:

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 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. 

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

40 minutes ago, atlnews2 said:

 

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 Tonight Show is a heritage franchise dating back to the network's early days.  It won't go unless NBC itself is in danger of going away.

I'm still surprised Jimmy Kimmel was able to switch places with Nightline, a show that has more history than any attempt at ABC and CBS.  And it's faced the most uphill battle of affiliates either not carrying it initially or delaying it (mostly Sinclair, fresh off their "ban" of Bill Maher's show post 9/11)

And by some luck of a deal, CBS gets a new soap to replace their "View" ripoff that replaced another long running soap opera.

But for all we know, if the orange one is offended by their NFL coverage this season, they'll kill that off too.  Because of him, this blackmailed merger is all tied back to HIM.