CBS said it is canceling \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d at the end of the upcoming television season in May, a casualty of industry changes that have dealt a crippling blow to advertising revenue.<\/p>\n
Colbert announced the news to his audience Thursday during a show taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. In a clip posted to Instagram, crowd members gasped, then started booing. A few people shouted: \u201cNo!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I share your feelings,\u201d Colbert said. <\/p>\n
He said he only learned of the move Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the end of our show, but it\u2019s the end of \u2018The Late Show\u2019 on CBS,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cI\u2019m not being replaced. This is all just going away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colbert, 61, has hosted the show for a decade. <\/p>\n
After a rocky start, Colbert found his sea legs and soon eclipsed longtime broadcast late-night leader NBC with his signature humor and sharp takes on political and cultural hot buttons. <\/p>\n
Colbert has long been a star within CBS\u2019 parent company, Paramount Global, rising to fame on Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cThe Daily Show With Jon Stewart.\u201d He hosted the satirical \u201cThe Colbert Report\u201d from 2005 to 2014 on Comedy Central, playing a caricature of a conservative political pundit. <\/p>\n
Once on CBS, Colbert won loyal viewers with his searing commentaries on President Trump and his actions \u2014 even before Trump was elected in 2016. <\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Colbert skewered his own company for its decision to cave to Trump by settling the president\u2019s lawsuit over \u201c60 Minutes\u201d edits, a case that most 1st Amendment experts called frivolous. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million, with most of that going to Trump\u2019s future presidential library. <\/p>\n
The dramatic decision to end a franchise that has helped shaped pop culture was stunning to some. CBS launched its late-night block in 1993 with David Letterman after he defected from NBC.<\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s show has ranked No. 1 among broadcasters in late night for nine consecutive seasons. <\/p>\n
\u201cLate Night\u201d averaged nearly 1.9 million viewers per night for the second quarter of the year, according to Nielsen data. ABC\u2019s \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d pulled in 1.5 million viewers and \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon\u201d averaged about 1 million viewers. <\/p>\n
But while Colbert leads among the broadcast networks, Fox News\u2019 \u201cGutfeld!\u201d draws a larger audience. <\/p>\n
With delayed viewing factored in, Colbert\u2019s show averaged nearly 2.5 million viewers for the season.<\/p>\n
CBS\u2019 decision to pull the plug underscores a dramatic shift in audience behavior from just a decade ago when Letterman passed the baton to Colbert. <\/p>\n
Younger viewers have little interest in waiting until almost bedtime to watch a 60-minute show. <\/p>\n
Instead, they watch short comedic clips on TikTok, YouTube and other apps on their phones. Network efforts to slice and post digestible clips of late-night shows on YouTube and other platforms, in a bid for greater viewership and ad revenue, has gone only so far. <\/p>\n
Colbert\u2019s show had been losing money, according to knowledgeable insiders. The steep advertising revenue drop began about three years ago, following pandemic disruptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,\u201d CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks and other top executives said in a joint statement. \u201cIt is not related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media is waiting for federal approval to buy Paramount, an $8-billion deal that is expected to usher in a new wave of cost-cutting. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable,\u201d said Cheeks, along with CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf. \u201cWe are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 200 people work on Colbert\u2019s show and their fate, beyond next spring, is unclear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful to the Tiffany network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course, I\u2019m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS said it is canceling \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d at the end of the upcoming television…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[50044,1582,276,50049,15328,3189,50045,2961,14165,15467,224,5337,405,50,50043,50046,18281,50047,13895,50048],"class_list":{"0":"post-71564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-advertising-revenue","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-casualty","12":"tag-cbs","13":"tag-content","14":"tag-crippling-blow","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-late-show","17":"tag-late-night","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-next-year","23":"tag-other-matter","24":"tag-performance","25":"tag-show-taping","26":"tag-stephen-colbert","27":"tag-television-season"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114872026731512515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}