Yeah, late night is dead for sure.

I used to watch Letterman and Conan because it was a fairly effective way to recap the news (lightheartedly sometimes... and sometimes very seriously) and get a general sense of the pulse of American culture. Now I have all of that information on my phone instantaneously, so why am I going to invest my time at 1030 at night watching one of these shows?

The problem was exacerbated by the fact that the content creators just aren't very likable in the same sense that Letterman, Conan and Carson were. I could imagine drinking a beer at the bar with Conan and enjoying the crap out of that. It would be pure torture to sit at a bar and have Colbert lecture me.

TCTTS said:

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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

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Just busting your chops, but losing 40 mill/year isn't worth 1%? Gotta be 100% political?

AgGrad99 said:

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I used to watch talk shows, and enjoyed them. But they are not entertaining anymore.

My ideas to save talk shows...

• Have them on earlier. Get rid of the late news. We dont need so many hours of the news...we've already seen the stories on our phones throughout the day.
• Don't try to be comedy shows. Funny mixed in is awesome, and if the host/show are naturally funny, so be it. But having comedians trying too hard to be funny, every night, usually isn't. Just have some good content and good interviews. I'd like to learn something about the guests, not just watch some pre-planned skit between them and host.
• Stop being so formulaic. Mix up the schedule. Make the audience feel like they might miss something if they don't tune in the entire time. I understand there are production concerns, etc...but the exact same format, every night, year after year, gets old.

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They tried that with Leno at 9pm and it was a disaster.

TCTTS said:

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amg405 said:

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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.

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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.

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Yep, great post. Comedy almost always ceases to be funny when you can tell there's actual hatred in the air.

There are millions of people who don't love everything about Trump but just thought he was better for the country than the alternative. And for some reason, when we see these types of comics railing on him relentlessly and constantly over villainizing him, it starts to feel like they really don't like anyone who doesn't believe Trump is a full on demon-possessed-Hitler-monster.

It's just way too much and gets old quick. Esp when you can tell these guys all think a lot of us are (a) stupid, or (b) evil, or both.

amg405 said:

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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.

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I noticed this in the SNL writers room as well during one of the documentary episodes of the anniversary.

The people in the writers room are so out of touch with reality, it's no wonder they cant make anything funny anymore.

Diversity of ideas is a requirement for comedy.

Nobody watches the show, and it's not funny or entertaining.

A dying format, really. The Leno generation is asleep by then, MIllennials and Gen Z would rather get their political hateslop scrolling on their phones. Only so much in ratings you can squeeze out of a portion of bitter Gen Xers.

Cliff.Booth said:

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A dying format, really. The Leno generation is asleep by then, MIllennials and Gen Z would rather get their political hateslop scrolling on their phones. Only so much in ratings you can squeeze out of a portion of bitter Gen Xers.

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Colbert and his driver leaving the studio after the news…

I honestly don't know a single person IRL that watches late night shows like that. Not my family, friends, or coworkers.

So who the heck DOES watch them??

My 2 cents...

It's a money thing and Paramount dgaf if people want to assume it's a political thing or sucking up to Trump. It's a very convenient red herring in this case. You can make the case like a lot of 16ers do (go woke go broke amirite?) and you can make the Reddit case of bully Trump and his billionaire buddy Ellison teaming up to squash liberal dissent. No matter which side you're on, you have a legitimate claim and the red v. blue wars can continue unabated.

I say it's all a red herring because linear media companies are turbo effed these days, largely because of the mountains and mountains of debt they're built on and simultaneously buried under.

The bottom line is the bottom line and always will be. Advertising agencies have 100% embraced streaming not because over half of video is watched online/on demand but because the cost is overwhelmingly in the advertiser's favor. Streaming ad rates are pennies on the dollar (for a lot of reasons) and instead of just paying linear rates on broadcast/OTA, they're demanding (and getting) reduced rates on broadcast/OTA because there's fewer and fewer eyes on linear.

Your NBCU/Disney/Paramounts of the world are sh**ing blood at this and have no idea how to handle it. Can't afford to tell an agency you won't take a lower rate because taking 70% of the money you got last year is better than taking 0%. The pinch comes in when the cost to acquire (or produce) quality programming is going up. I'm sure Colbert's contract when signed didn't seem like an anchor to Paramount. The disruption of the last 2 years (on the business side, not necessarily the content or innovative side) has been catastrophic across all linear broadcasting as the other non linear options (originally fueled by VC) have matured and actually become profitable or at least arent burning through money at the same rate they were.

AJ02 said:

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I honestly don't know a single person IRL that watches late night shows like that. Not my family, friends, or coworkers.

So who the heck DOES watch them??

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I seriously wonder how much of their total viewship is people who had it turned to one of the major networks for some other show and forgot to/were too lazy to turn it and fell asleep. Bet it's not an insignificant number.

I wish current day talk show hosts like Colbert and Kimmel would take the advice of Johnny Carson.

In this clip, he explains why he never talked politics on The Tonight Show.

Do you agree with him? pic.twitter.com/swFZy8HjfB

— Angela Belcamino (@AngelaBelcamino) July 18, 2025

Anyone that is shocked by this has not been paying attention for many years.

If Colbert was shocked by this, then that is just hubris on his part.

I've been sitting over here wondering when this was going to happen - not if.

The irony of people saying it's politics that got it killed miss the fact that it's politics that has kept the show on this long with blatant headwinds of no viewers and no money.

It's the same thing that happened to the soap opera industry. Every network had 3 of them that had been around for 50+ years as institutions. Once one pulled the plug, they all pulled the plug.

"Hey, why did Colbert get the Late Show if Letterman promised it to Craig Ferguson?"

It's, uh... a mystery for the ages. pic.twitter.com/vg5wAHjSvg

— RazörFist (@RAZ0RFIST) July 19, 2025

YouBet said:

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Anyone that is shocked by this has not been paying attention for many years.

If Colbert was shocked by this, then that is just hubris on his part.

I've been sitting over here wondering when this was going to happen - not if.

The irony of people saying it's politics that got it killed miss the fact that it's politics that has kept the show on this long with blatant headwinds of no viewers and no money.

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$40M annual gift to the DNC in the form of leftist propaganda masquerading as comedy. You are correct, pure politics.

amg405 said:

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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.

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He was NEVER good.

20ag07 said:

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Quote:

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The average age of a Colbert viewer is 68, which perhaps says more about CBS' audience than it does Colbert's, but it also makes it a bit tougher to imagine Colbert hustling viewers to "smash that like and subscribe button" on YouTube alongside MrBeast.

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/stephen-colbert-late-show-ends-future-1236319676/

1000% believe that is accurate.

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The avg 68 year old is up watching TV that late?! No freaking way.

His crappy show was losing $40mm a year?!?!?! Holy crap what a joke Hollywood is.

Whatever. Television industry.

Kimmel is next. His contract is up in 2026. That show is not an institution-ABC wasn't even in the late night game until he came along.