{"id":857318,"date":"2026-06-10T11:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857318\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:07:34","slug":"chicago-media-report-late-show-set-arrives-wgn-tv-sued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857318\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Media Report: ‘Late Show’ set arrives, WGN-TV sued"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS may have canceled \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert,\u201d but its legacy will live on at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Late Show\u201d set \u2013 desk, chairs and all \u2013 made a day-and-a-half sojourn in the back of a truck from a New Jersey warehouse, arriving last week at the Randolph Street museum for permanent display in Chicago, the city where Colbert cut his comedy teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big deal,\u201c said David Plier, a former retailing executive and current part-time radio host at WGN who serves as chairman, president and CEO of the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Late Show\u201d was at the top of its game when CBS pulled the plug on the franchise<\/a>, and the star-studded May 21 finale drew 6.74 million viewers, according to Nielsen, the most in Colbert\u2019s 11-year run on the network. His furniture will become the crown jewel of a collection that previously focused on Chicago broadcast history, but now aspires to be the Smithsonian of late-night TV.<\/p>\n

Donated by the network, \u201cThe Late Show\u201d set was delivered Thursday at noon, a large white truck dodging lunchtime pedestrians as it pulled into an alley east of the museum, swinging open its rear doors to reveal the seat of late-night TV humor.<\/p>\n

Getting the complete set seemed unlikely after the May 14 episode, when former host David Letterman joined Colbert in gleefully dropping guest and desk chairs from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though there were chairs thrown off the Ed Sullivan Theater, those were extras,\u201d Plier said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe traveling desk for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is on display for the “Evolution of Late Night Television” exhibition at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in the West Loop on June 4, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s actual desk, chairs, credenza, stage columns and other set pieces arrived an hour late but intact Thursday. They sat in the truck for another half hour as Plier paced the busy sidewalk like an expectant parent, waiting for a separate moving team.<\/p>\n

The most challenging piece was an enormous crate containing Colbert\u2019s desk. Two movers somehow maneuvered it out of the truck and down the busy sidewalk, wedging it through the front doors, waiting for reinforcements to help bring it down to the main floor.<\/p>\n

Colbert helped steer \u201cThe Late Show\u201d set to Chicago, Plier said, where it will be displayed in perpetuity at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, an eclectic and itinerant 40-year-old institution that itself seemed close to cancellation in recent years.<\/p>\n

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Column: Stephen Colbert\u2019s signoff reminds us of the days the Chicago Cubs were a late-night punchline<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Launched by the late Bruce Dumont in 1987 at River City on South Wells Street, the museum moved to the Chicago Cultural Center in 1992, where it became a major tourist attraction with exhibits from Chicago TV shows.<\/p>\n

The museum temporarily closed in 2003<\/a> amid ambitious plans to move into a four-story building it bought at State and Kinzie streets. But it took nearly a decade to raise funds and remodel the $27 million River North space, which finally opened in 2012.<\/p>\n

Struggling financially, the museum sold its third and fourth floors<\/a> in 2019 to real estate firm Fern Hill. In 2023, the developer exercised an option to take over the entire building, kicking out<\/a> the museum.<\/p>\n

In October, after going dark for more than two years, the museum reopened in a pop-up space at 440 W. Randolph St. in the West Loop.<\/p>\n

Plier is hoping to make it a permanent home with the help of a $2.5 million grant from the city of Chicago, and a new $12 million capital campaign. He is also planning to rename the museum \u201cafter a very famous Chicagoan\u201d while broadening its mission going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a national museum, we want to attract visitors from all over,\u201d Plier said. \u201cWe will always keep Chicago as part of it, but we see ourselves absolutely as a national institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late-night TV exhibit features everything from Johnny Carson\u2019s \u201cTonight Show\u201d set to the saxophone Bill Clinton played on \u201cThe Arsenio Hall Show\u201d during his 1992 presidential campaign. There\u2019s even an original \u201cTriumph the Insult Comic Dog,\u201d as first seen on \u201cLate Night With Conan O\u2019Brien.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MuseumMuseum visitors watch a video montage that’s part of the “Johnny Carson: The Centennial” exhibition on display at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in the West Loop on June 4, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The museum still has exhibits devoted to Chicago broadcast history, such as \u201cBozo\u2019s Circus\u201d and \u201cSvengoolie.\u201d It also houses the National Radio Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

CBS relegated the top-rated \u201cLate Show\u201d to broadcast history last July, saying it was losing $40 million a year. Some analysts contend then-CBS owner Paramount was seeking to curry favor with the Trump administration for its pending acquisition by Skydance. The FCC approved the $8 billion merger one week after the Colbert cancellation announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Late Show\u201d exhibit will likely be the star attraction when it opens to the public later this summer. Plier is hoping to get Colbert himself to cut the ribbon on his old desk and chairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re a Democrat or Republican, whether you liked that show or not, it\u2019s still television history, and now it\u2019s here,\u201d Plier said.<\/p>\n

WGN-TV sued for airing \u2018Mr. Finance\u2019<\/p>\n

A class action lawsuit was filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against WGN-TV and owner Nexstar Media, as well as several Chicago-area radio stations, for platforming Brandon Ellington, who allegedly used the airwaves to swindle hundreds of Chicagoans out of $15 million through a Ponzi-like investment scheme.<\/p>\n

WGN-Ch. 9 featured Ellington, a convicted mortgage-fraud felon who rebranded himself as \u201cMr. Finance,\u201d on several broadcasts last year, including its daily lifestyle show \u201cSpotlight Chicago,\u201d which airs weekdays at 1 p.m. with hosts Sarah Jindra and Ji Suk Yi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWGN-TV\u2019s own hosts endorsed him in the station\u2019s voice,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cThe hosts asked no probing question about Ellington\u2019s background and disclosed nothing about it; they presented a convicted federal mortgage-fraud felon to their viewers as a model of financial success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellington\u2019s on-air interviews are still posted<\/a> on WGN\u2019s YouTube page.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Dallas-based Nexstar declined to comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The alleged scheme was marketed by Ellington on various media as a passive income real estate investment program promising high returns through his south suburban company, Access Capital Today. Instead, it collapsed, failing to make payments and leaving hundreds of Chicagoans holding the bag, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed by Chicago attorney Alexander Loftus on behalf of Milton Harris and Byron Crawford, who invested and lost money after tuning into Ellington\u2019s on-air pitches. The station\u2019s endorsement essentially closed the deal, Loftus told the Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s Mr. Finance, and he\u2019s on TV, so he must be legit,\u201d Loftus said.<\/p>\n

In May, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias issued a temporary order prohibiting Ellington and Access Capital Today from acting as investment advisers, calling the promoted program a \u201cPonzi-like scheme\u201d that ensnared more than 300 clients.<\/p>\n

Ellington, who is not a registered investment adviser, pleaded guilty in 2009 for his role as a loan originator in a sweeping mortgage fraud<\/a> case in Chicago federal court.<\/p>\n

In addition to WGN-TV, the lawsuit names several Chicago-area radio stations as defendants for promoting and airing Ellington\u2019s investment advice programs, including iHeartMedia-owned WGRB-AM and WVON-AM, and Crawford Broadcasting-owned WSRB-FM.<\/p>\n

Chicago sports TV mourns passing of Stacey King<\/p>\n

Chicago sports fans are mourning the passing of Stacey King<\/a>, 59, a role player on the Bulls early \u201990s championship teams who became a star in the broadcast booth.<\/p>\n

After a coaching stint for the Rockford Lightning in the CBA, King started at Comcast SportsNet as a studio analyst in 2006, joining Bulls\u2019 TV announcers Tom Dore and Johnny \u201cRed\u201d Kerr as a color commentator during the team\u2019s playoff run that season. In 2008, King was paired with TV play-by-play announcer Neil Funk, becoming the team\u2019s lead color announcer.<\/p>\n

Kerr, the Bulls inaugural head coach and longtime broadcaster, died in 2009.<\/p>\n