With the announcement that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is now entering its final season, an era of late-night comedy and chat comes to an end. Or does it? Amid claims of political interference and dwindling ad revenues, the shock ending to a show that has run for more than 30 years should have been apparent. So why was everyone so surprised?
On Thursday night’s show, Colbert declared that this last season will be wrapping up in 2026. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he said. CBS, the show’s owner, released a statement insisting, “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” It’s “purely a financial decision.”
As The New York Times reports, “In 2018, network late-night shows took in $439 million in ad revenue, according to Guideline, an advertising data firm. By last year, that figure had dropped to $220 million, a 50 percent drop in just seven years.” And that cash is not only from this one show; it’s from the entire genre and time period.
But let’s look at the numbers directly for The Late Show. Five years ago, it averaged roughly 3.81 million viewers per episode. Today, that figure is 2.4 million. Certainly, it’s still the top-rated of its type, but it falls far behind Fox’s Gutfeld! (3.29 million average).
The Late Show increased its first-to-second quarter audience share by just 1% this year, but dropped 8% in the all-important 18- to 49-year-old category.
A large part of this equation is that audience behavior has been rapidly changing. Consumers have multiple outlets from which to source their entertainment, ranging from streaming services to internet platforms, each pecking away at the once-dominant network television. Even here, desultory video views on YouTube for segments of The Late Show suggest a change in taste and temperament.
Almost inevitably – and perfectly exemplifying the burdensome political mantle the show had adopted – calls of conspiracy swiftly followed the announcement. Left-leaning social media users declared the canceling to be “political” and demanded answers. But such chatter was not restricted to the anonymous internet. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) issued her own clarion call on the matter:
“[J]ust THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump. … America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Her colleague in the upper chamber, Adam Schiff, now a senator for California, presented a carbon copy response, saying: “If Paramount and CBS ended The Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”
And indeed, the vast majority of left-leaning news outlets covered the story by prominently informing readers of two facts. First, the parent company had recently settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump. Second, the show was the “top-rated” property. Neither fact discounts the reality that cash is king. If greater profits can be earned with a different strategy, Paramount/CBS has a duty to shareholders to chase that revenue.
While the numbers themselves paint a bleak enough picture, Mr. Colbert’s attitude towards his employer could also be a significant factor. “While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement over his ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit,” Colbert said this week to the dwindling audience. He continued:
“As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company, but just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
So not only has the property lost audience share and cash revenue, but its host (not to mention executive producer) is also openly calling his employer untrustworthy. It is a rare business enterprise that would put up with an employee (who is far from riding high) badmouthing it in the most public of public forums.
CBS says the decision was financial, and a cold look at the numbers provides no reason to doubt that position. Still, below this, another question raises its ugly head: What killed the cash cow? Stephen Colbert spent almost every week deriding Donald Trump, his supporters, conservatives in general, and Republicans in particular. He effectively alienated at least half of his potential audience (with the full blessing of his network).
So yes, Senators Warren and Schiff may, in fact, be correct that politics is to blame for the cancellation of this once-vaunted late-night entertainment property. Just not in the way they seem to be suggesting.