{"id":73945,"date":"2025-07-18T23:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73945\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T23:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T23:51:09","slug":"ex-late-show-ep-says-never-threaten-a-corporate-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/73945\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-‘Late Show’ EP Says “Never Threaten A Corporate Merger”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a wholesale late-night talk show change, CBS<\/a> is exiting the space with the cancellation of the Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a><\/a>, sunsetting the franchise that launched in 1993 with David Letterman as host.<\/p>\n

\n\tRob Burnett<\/a>, who was a writer-producer on NBC\u2019s Late Night With David Letterman until Letterman left in a dramatic fashion to launch CBS\u2019 The Late Show after being passed over for The Tonight Show, was on The Late Show with David Letterman for its entire 22-year run. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe former Late Show executive producer, who also served as president of Letterman\u2019s Worldwide Pants banner, tapped into his comedy writer background when he was asked by Deadline about CBS\u2019 decision to ax the Late Show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we started the Late Show in 1993, we had the same goals everyone doing talk shows has: make people laugh and never threaten a corporate merger,\u201d he quipped. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe latter is clearly a reference to the CBS parent Paramount Global\u2019s pending acquisition by Skydance which has loomed large over the Late Show cancellation as it came only days after Colbert, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, called Paramount Global\u2019s $16 million settlement<\/a> of Trump\u2019s 60 Minutes lawsuit a \u201cbig fat bribe.\u201d<\/a> Settling the suit had been considered a move by Paramount to help secure FCC approval for the Skydance merger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf Colbert had been #1 and nominated for an Emmy two days prior none of this would have happened,\u201d Burnett deadpanned about the Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a>\u2018s status as the most watched late-night program by a wide margin. On Tuesday, it landed another Emmy nomination<\/a> for Outstanding Talk Series.<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking to preempt the backlash, CBS called the Late Show cancellation \u201cpurely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night\u201d and \u201cis not related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBurnett didn\u2019t quite buy that argument. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile the financial landscape of late night has undeniably changed, I don\u2019t think you dismiss a talent like Stephen Colbert in this manner,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense..\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also picked a winner in the CBS vs. Colbert debacle. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cStephen is as good as it gets,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cHe will be heard from for many years to come. They should choose their adversaries more wisely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a wholesale late-night talk show change, CBS is exiting the space with the cancellation of the Late…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[15328,171,49809,51612,13895,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-73945","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-rob-burnett","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\/114876926423074268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73945","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=73945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}