{"id":73357,"date":"2025-07-18T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73357\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:46:10","slug":"inside-cbss-late-night-breakup-with-stephen-colbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73357\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside CBS’s Late Night Breakup With Stephen Colbert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe state of late-night TV<\/a> is keeping media executives from sleeping well.<\/p>\n

\n\tCBS\u2019 decision to cut ties with Stephen Colbert<\/a> and its decades-old \u201cLate Show\u201d franchise come next May will leave a major hole in the format \u2014 but one that has been widening.<\/a> TV networks have been cutting costs at their late-night mainstays for the past few years. NBC in 2021 cut ties with Lilly Singh,<\/a> a young comic who was the latest personality to host an original hour of comedy and talk at 1:30 a.m., and then decided to stop producing new content for the time slot. The network also took th<\/a>e<\/a> live band from Seth Meyers \u201cLate Night\u201d<\/a> and recently cut Friday broadcasts from Jimmy Fallon\u2019s \u201cTonight Show.\u201d<\/a> CBS<\/a> is replacing a nascent 12:30 a.m. program, \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d with old repeats of the syndicated \u201cComics Unleashed.\u201d<\/a> And Comedy Central\u2019s current version of \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d features its main host, Jon Stewart, just once a week.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCBS has been worried about these dynamics for months, even the last few years, according to two people familiar with the matter. While Colbert was informed officially Wednesday night of the network\u2019s decision to end \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d executives have expressed concerns about the show\u2019s costs for the past several weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter, holding off on a final judgement to allow the host to relax while \u201cLate Show\u201d and other late-night programs were on a production hiatus tied to the July 4 holiday. One of these people says executives didn\u2019t want to force a pay cut or call for trims among the show\u2019s staff, and could not look away from declines in ad support for the entire format.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere have been reasons for worry. Advertisers committed around $439 million to five late night<\/a> shows on broadcast TV in 2018 \u2014 \u201cLate Show\u201d and \u201cLate Late Show\u201d on CBS; \u201cTonight\u201d and \u201cLate Night\u201d on NBC; and \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live\u201d on ABC \u2014 according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. By 2024, those dollars slumped 49.8% to $220.6 million. The coronavirus pandemic<\/a> and a Hollywood labor strike, both of which forced the programs to cut production, and the replacement of \u201cLate Late Show\u201d with \u201cAfter Midnight,\u201d<\/a> a less-costly substitute, contributed to the ad shortfalls.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut so too did the exodus of young people from linear TV. Late-night has long commanded ad dollars and top premiums from advertisers eager to reach people between the ages of 18 and 34. Now that cohort is more accustomed to watching and passing along clips from the programs the morning after they air. That makes the shows increasingly difficult to monetize.<\/p>\n

\n\tCBS\u2019 relationship with Colbert has remained strong, according to the two people familiar with the situation. Network executives had a lot of regard for his ability to move past a rocky \u201cLate Show\u201d start and focus on discussing the news of the day, booking personalities in the news as well as the usual coterie of TV and movie stars \u2014 and riding the concept to becoming the most-watched late-night program on broadcast TV. \u201cLate Show\u201d hadn\u2019t triumphed over \u201cNBC\u2019s\u201d \u201cTonight\u201d in that area since David Letterman launched the CBS program in 1993.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a result, CBS treated Colbert a lot like his predecessor. Letterman wasn\u2019t always eager to take on product-placement projects or produce sitcoms or game shows, and CBS respected the decision because of his standing. They felt the same way about Colbert. And yet, rivals were picking up many more of these projects, like a bar sponsored by Anheuser-Busch<\/a> and Heineken that had a prominent place on James Corden\u2019s \u201cLate Late Show.\u201d Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel host programs like NBC\u2019s \u201cPassword\u201d or ABC\u2019s \u201cWho Wants to Be a Millionaire.\u201d Kimmel has long embraced doing commercials in show and Fallon takes part in an ad deal with Ford Motor Co. These \u201cextras\u201d help the network and make the host more of a full-time \u201cambassador,\u201d according to one person familiar with the mechanics of late-night television.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be sure, two people familiar with the matter say the Colbert-CBS relationship was never a tense one, and note Colbert eagerly took on whatever extra duties the network suggested. He helped launch a comedic-sports special built around pickleball<\/a>, took a hand in producing \u201cAfter Midnight,\u201d and promoting its young host, Taylor Tomlinson. And Colbert and others launched programs like \u201cOur Cartoon President,\u201d an animated program for adults that ran on CBS sibling Showtime. Colbert\u2019s Spartina production outlet struck a three-year first-look deal with CBS in 2021.<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch has been made about potential concerns tied to Colbert\u2019s humor, which has often skewered President Donald Trump and Republicans. Paramount has appeared extremely sensitive to such stuff in recent weeks, thanks to its recent decision to pay $16 million to settle what many legal experts said was a flimsy legal case filed by Trump over the way an interview was edited by CBS News\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d Colbert called the payment a \u201cbig fat bribe\u201d on his Monday \u201cLate Show\u201d broadcast. There are also worries internally that Skydance Media, which is expected to acquire Paramount in weeks to come, tilts more conservative in its political views.<\/p>\n

\n\tCBS\u2019 timing created tough optics. The Writers Guild of America on Friday called for the New York State Attorney General to \u201claunch an investigation into potential wrongdoing at Paramount,\u201d citing \u201csignificant concerns that\u00a0\u2018The Late Show\u2019\u2019s cancelation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while the decision may look like blowback for Colbert\u2019s commentary, executives weren\u2019t prepared to make a move in May when they could have used it to win extra ad support in the industry\u2019s annual \u201cupfront\u201d ad sales market, according to two people familiar with the matter, and they didn\u2019t want to make it without speaking to Colbert directly \u2014 something they didn\u2019t want to do while he was on vacation. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut they couldn\u2019t wait until, say, the start of the next TV season. Late-night writers and producers typically sign one-year deals that keep them in place on a show from August to August. When contracts tied to the 2025-2026 programming cycle went out to agents at around this time, they would only keep people employed through May. CBS executives knew the news of the decision would leak \u2014 and quickly. So they had to move this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a sign that the two sides still get along, Colbert isn\u2019t being pulled off the air, as a host might if they tripped network sensibilities, two people familiar with the relationship point out. Colbert and staff get another ten months on air, likely free to go out on under their own steam and burnishing the humor audiences have come to expect.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe network will sacrifice a lot when it drops \u201cLate Show.\u201d It has been a signature program that drives regular network viewership, and it captured 29% of all ad dollars spent on broadcast TV\u2019s late-night shows in 2024, according to Guideline. \u201cLate Show\u201d is also one of CBS\u2019 best programs for ad reach, according to ad-measurement company iSpot, behind Sunday NFL broadcasts, \u201cThe Price is Right,\u201d \u201cThe Young & the Restless\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Make a Deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, NBC continues to capture the majority of late-night ad dollars, with Fallon luring 33%, or $79 million, and Meyers winning 11%, or $26.2 million, according to Guideline. \u201cLate Show\u2019s\u201d ad take in 2024 was $70.2 million \u2014 more than Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s ABC program, but less than Fallon\u2019s. There is a feeling that some of Colbert\u2019s commentary makes \u201cLate Show\u201d something some advertisers prefer to avoid \u2014 much like some do when it comes to news programs as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll this math wasn\u2019t adding up for CBS. And Colbert\u2019s exit will put more pressure on other hosts and others to pick up more support from Madison Avenue. Jon Stewart, who holds forth on CBS\u2019 Paramount sibling Comedy Central, is on a year to year contact, according to people familiar with the matter, and it may be left to Skydance to decide what to do with \u201cDaily Show.\u201d Fallon and Meyers have deals that keep them at NBC through 2028. Kimmel has a deal that keeps him at ABC through 2026, and one person familiar with his thinking says the host is closer to the end of his late-night tenure than the beginning after doing the job since 2003.<\/p>\n

\n\tWee-hours talk shows have for decades operated on the premise that the hosts served as gentle entertainers who could help audiences go off to sleep after some light banter, witty conversation and a few celebrity encounters. In the current era, however, the comedians at the shows\u2019 center are more frenzied than ever. They do social-media hits, outside programs, promotional deals. And they poke fun at an increasingly worrisome news cycle tied to fierce politics.<\/p>\n

\n\t With all that happening, the nation may have to grapple with more insomnia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of late-night TV is keeping media executives from sleeping well. CBS\u2019 decision to cut ties with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[15328,171,49809,15467,13895,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-73357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","11":"tag-late-night","12":"tag-stephen-colbert","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114875726885413108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73357","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=73357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}