Gonna be hard not to see this through a political lens given CBS's recent settlement. They are getting crushed over it right now.
But will be interesting to see where/how he lands. Still young and ton of talent whether you agree with him politically or not.

oragator said:

---

Gonna be hard not to see this through a political lens given CBS's recent settlement. They are getting crushed over it right now.
But will be interesting to see where/how he lands. Still young and ton of talent whether you agree with him politically or not.

---

Well, he's 61, so I don't know about "young."

Network TV is mostly reality shows now, with some sports and news mixed in.

He'll just start up a podcast like Conan.

He should emulate Jon Stewart and return to Comedy Central.
The Colbert Report remains the funniest night in, night out show I've ever seen.

I think this was 100% political/part of the Trump settlement. At least that's what spurred it. However, Matt Belloni provided some pertinent additional context last night that probably made the decision a pretty easy one, if not a no-brainer, financially...

The timing and optics are terrible, but Stephen Colbert’s show costs more than $100M a year to produce and is losing more than $40M a year. CBS execs had been mulling for a long time whether to pull the plug. Details ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/gjSuazpef9

— Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) July 18, 2025

Quote:

---

The Colbert Conundrum

Speaking of complicated: Today's announcement that CBS will end Late Show With Stephen Colbert at the end of the 2026 season came as a shock to you, me, and those who've worked on the program for years. Paramount co-C.E.O. George Cheeks pulled the trigger on this one, though sources tell me CBS executives have been discussing the future of the Late Show franchise for months. The Colbert team was notified around July Fourth that the show was in jeopardy, and Colbert himself was told of the final decision last night. CBS did not plan to announce the move so soon, per sources, but Colbert decided that to avoid leaks, he wanted to reveal it this afternoon to his staff and discuss it on his show tonight, which he did. You can tell from the clips he's still kinda in shock, and backstage, I'm told he was resolute and matter-of-fact with his top staff, thanking them and "not angry, actually," per one source in the Ed Sullivan Theater.

---

[Please do not cut and paste whole articles. -Staff]

There's always Magic Johnson if you need a quick cheap replacement host.

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

Whos Juan said:

---

Colbert will be just fine. He's not the first political entertainment casualty and won't be the last.

There are so many different platforms for him to move to he'll find a new home in no time.

If anything, between this and the South Park debacle, CBS/Paramount/Skydance all look terrible. I'm really curious what they plan on putting in that time slot after the Late Show ends its run.

---

Considering the amount of boosters that guy has probably taken one can't be so sure about that.

amg405 said:

---

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

---

Yeah, every once in a while I'll catch an opening monologue from Colbert/Fallon/Kimmel and, man, they're just sooooo bad now (especially Fallon). Just utterly unfunny, regardless of politics. I think Colbert is a great interviewer, and I actually love Kimmel (which I know is unpopular around here), but by and large, the comedy on these late night talk shows has gotten so incredibly hacky that it's almost unbearable.

That, and as much as I hate Trump, even I admit that it's gotten pretty lame and off-putting how blatantly anti-right Colbert's and Kimmel's shows have become. Late night talk show hosts have made fun of sitting Presidents for as long as late night talk shows have existed, but it's just weird to see how one-sided and extreme these network institutions have so consistently become. To the point where, IMO, the whole format needs either a complete refresh of hosts - or just cancel the format altogether, at least for a while, then bring a couple of them back on streaming, with a fresh take, in a few years.

I cost over $100 million/year to produce and was losing $40 million/year?!?!

$100M!? Podcasters and YouTube Content Creators are putting up comparable numbers to Colbert's late night ratings at a fraction of the cost.

I don't know if the late night talk show business model works anymore but alienating half the country isn't sustainable.

Having a late night show seems like it's mostly a prestige thing for the big 3. Sort of like the national news. I haven't watched the national News at 530 since I was a high school senior.

If it's true the show was losing $40 million a year, the question isn't why it was canceled.

It's why it took so long.

TCTTS said:

---

amg405 said:

---

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

---

Yeah, every once in a while I'll catch an opening monologue from Colbert/Fallon/Kimmel and, man, they're just sooooo bad now (especially Fallon). Just utterly unfunny, regardless of politics. I think Colbert is a great interviewer, and I actually love Kimmel (which I know is unpopular around here), but by and large, the comedy on these late night talk shows has gotten so incredibly hacky that it's almost unbearable.

That, and as much as I hate Trump, even I admit that it's gotten pretty lame and off-putting how blatantly anti-right Colbert's and Kimmel's shows have become. Late night talk show hosts have made fun of sitting Presidents for as long as late night talk shows have existed, but it's just weird to see how one-sided and extreme these network institutions have so consistently become. To the point where, IMO, the whole format needs either a complete refresh of hosts - or just cancel the format altogether, at least for a while, then bring a couple of them back on streaming, with a fresh take, in a few years.

---

Agreed. Alienating (at least) half the potential viewing audience by being so clearly partisan to the left just isn't a great business model. I'm conservative but I'd give anything a chance if it was funny. But these guys are just….bad. I honestly think some of the viewership they actually did manage to retain is simply people that like to hear the orange man bad talk. Because surely nobody actually finds their schtick to be funny… right?

The one-sided takes got old. Even SNL has figured out that you've got to balance it out a bit more, and be more inclusive of the other 50% of the country.

Aust Ag said:

---

The one-sided takes got old. Even SNL has figured out that you've got to balance it out a bit more, and be more inclusive of the other 50% of the country.

---

Its like when they had Alec Baldwin doing Trump vs James Austin Johnson. Baldwins impression was so bad and unfunny because he was doing it out of hate and it was coming through. Don't know what Johnson's politics are and don't care, but his impression is great and funny because he is doing it to be funny.

Conan was smart to get out of the talk show game.

Making 9 figures on a podcast that is probably 1/10 the work and 10x as fun. And can leisurely do creative projects like his HBOMax travel show.

amg405 said:

---

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

---

This.

People are going to make it political, but bottom line, don't lose your employer money, and you'll still have a job.

He was funny on Comedy Central, but he was pretty bad as a talk show host. It's funny that people are clamoring about this being 'political'. He only initially gained ratings by being political...but he just beat that horse to death and no one cares anymore. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

amg405 said:

---

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

---

He stopped playing a caricature when he went to CBS and was just himself, that was part of the problem. He built his image on the part he played on TDS and Colbert Report. While it was over-the-top, it was at least funny and silly. When he would interview himself, that always cracked me up. But it was a character...it wasn't the actual Stephen Colbert.

I just don't think he was an entertaining late night host. Very mean spirited and forced with his comedy, and kind of awkward as a host at times. Maybe the Trump lawsuit played a role...but I think the writing was on the wall...this just kept it from being a slow death.

The quality just isn't there anymore. Leno and Conan weren't conservatives, but they chose to be silly and mock everyone instead of trying to use their platform to "inform" the masses. Letterman had his share of political opinions...but there again he was so good at creating content that people enjoyed that had nothing to do with opinions or politics.

I think the late night shows of today punted on a lot of great content, especially the last few years, just to frame things in the way they wanted them...and that's not good comedy. I think audiences tuned out because of it. They wanted to be entertained, not hearing a TED talk on modern society with a bit of comedy mixed in.

I think that's why a guy like Nate Bargatze is so popular...people are craving authentic comedy right now because so little of it is in the mainstream. The late night talk shows used to make fun of every day things like Nate does. I wish comedy would go back to that.

Colbert's move to CBS really is a bizarre thing looking back on it. He was hugely popular playing an over-the-top character, then got a talk show where he revealed his real self was 100% the opposite of that character.

It would be like giving the Tonight Show in the 1980s to Arthur Fonzarelli, but Henry Winker was just going to be his laid back, nice guy self on the talk show.

amg405 said:

---

TCTTS said:

---

amg405 said:

---

Gotta be honest - whatever the Trump politics are… he and his writers aren't funny. And I used to love the Daily Show and to some extent Colbert Report.

If the ratings were good enough CBS finds a way. He's just not good anymore.

---

Yeah, every once in a while I'll catch an opening monologue from Colbert/Fallon/Kimmel and, man, they're just sooooo bad now (especially Fallon). Just utterly unfunny, regardless of politics. I think Colbert is a great interviewer, and I actually love Kimmel (which I know is unpopular around here), but by and large, the comedy on these late night talk shows has gotten so incredibly hacky that it's almost unbearable.

That, and as much as I hate Trump, even I admit that it's gotten pretty lame and off-putting how blatantly anti-right Colbert's and Kimmel's shows have become. Late night talk show hosts have made fun of sitting Presidents for as long as late night talk shows have existed, but it's just weird to see how one-sided and extreme these network institutions have so consistently become. To the point where, IMO, the whole format needs either a complete refresh of hosts - or just cancel the format altogether, at least for a while, then bring a couple of them back on streaming, with a fresh take, in a few years.

---

Agreed. Alienating (at least) half the potential viewing audience by being so clearly partisan to the left just isn't a great business model. I'm conservative but I'd give anything a chance if it was funny. But these guys are just….bad. I honestly think some of the viewership they actually did manage to retain is simply people that like to hear the orange man bad talk. Because surely nobody actually finds their schtick to be funny… right?

---

Go back to not being nasty when making fun of the president that is opposite to your views. I remember I loved Dana Carvey's take on Bush 41. Even he loved it. These days, some of these "comedians" / "writers" are not funny. They try so hard to make fun of Trump and 75% of their monologues are shots at him. It just gets old. Is what I call: "lazy comedy."

I'm sure it's an amalgamation of all these things. I don't find Kimmel, Colbert, or Fallon to be funny, at all. As mentioned above, Colbert was funny when his whole persona was an act. Kimmel and Fallon have NEVER been funny.

Then they all take over and Colbert and Kimmel bring in the era of the hyper-politicized late night talk show host. When they did this, they immediately lost a big chunk of their audience because the political humor wasn't silly or funny, it was mean spirited, hateful, and just sounds like Democrat talking points. That is not comedy.

But at the end of the day, the medium itself is dead. Late Night talk shows are a thing of the past and the younger crowd isn't watching them. I grew up watching Letterman and then switching over to NBC to watch Conan. Not a single one of these current guys can touch those two when it comes to their quick wit and ability to bring out the best in their guests. These new guys are also way too narcissistic and take themselves way too seriously. I will take my self-deprecating comedians every day.

ETA: I could not care less about Colbert losing his job. Good riddance. However, it sucks for all the crew who rely on these shows for their living. We'll see if Colbert takes care of them out of his own pockets, like Conan did.

I was going to mention that about Baldwin, you could just see the hate oozing, the angry caricature.

He's a hack

Although I'm sure that alienating half of your audience doesn't help, I don't think these types of shows would be getting good ratings either way. It's just a different world now. It doesn't even cross my mind to watch anything on live tv outside of sports. If Conan still had a late night show, I wouldn't watch it (and I like Conan). Nor would I watch anyone else. It's just a format that I have zero interest in. And if I did want to watch it, I would just pull the clips up on YouTube and watch it there at my convenience without any ads.

Making fun of politicians can still be funny, but the delivery and underlying feelings behind the joke matter. Shane Gillis' Trump bits are hilarious, but he doesn't seem to have contempt for that side. Nate Bargatze poking fun at American customs is spot on, but he's not looking down at his audience. The same types of jokes delivered from Colbert would likely come across as "I'm part of the enlightened class and I'm going to tell you why you are stupid and I am not".