July 19, 2025

Colbert Late Show Canceled by an inadvertent Taylor Tomlinson butterly effect?

Show Notes
Transcript

In this Saturday afternoon bonus episode, Johnny Mac discusses the latest developments surrounding Stephen Colbert and the potential impact on late-night TV. He reflects on the recent cancellation ripple effects potentially caused by Taylor Tomlinson stepping away (I AM NOT BLAMING TAYLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and how CBS might be reconsidering their late-night strategy. The episode includes behind-the-scenes insights from Colbert's recent taping session, audience reactions, and detailed viewership statistics for various late-night shows. Johnny ends with thoughts on the future outlook for other prominent hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and the legacy of The Daily Show.

00:51 The Taylor Tomlinson Theory
02:29 Behind the Scenes of Colbert's Announcement
04:10 Late Night TV Ratings Breakdown
06:53 Future of Late Night Shows

et the show without ads. Five bucks. For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus.

Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com
John’s free substack about the media: Media Thoughts is mcdpod.substack.com

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et the show without ads. Five bucks. For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus.

Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com
John’s free substack about the media: Media Thoughts is mcdpod.substack.com

DCN on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dailycomedynews
https://linktr.ee/dailycomedynews

You can also support the show at www.buymeacoffee.com/dailycomedynews

07:46 John Stewart's Perspective
08:56 Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news--4522158/support.

WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack. This is

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a bonus episode for Saturday afternoon. Let me just do

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the housekeeping and then we'll talk about Stephen Colbert in

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this bonus episode. All right, So if you go through

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the feed, Friday Mornings regular episode recapped Shane Gillison the SPS.

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I was a big fan of that podcast episode. It's

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got a little loss on the weeds with the Colbert

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bomb dropping. So that was Friday morning, Friday afternoon, kind

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of late around six pm Eastern, I dropped a bonus

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episode about Colbert with all the initial reaction and analysis.

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This morning was a normal episode. Then tomorrow morning in

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the feed, you'll get a normal episode and I will

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drop a third Colbert bonus episode at noon on Sunday.

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As I've thought about this, now, stay with me, don't

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overreact to the first thing that I'm about to say.

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Don't overreact. Let me finish the complete thought before you

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freak out to think about this. Did Taylor Tomlinson accidentally

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kill off late Night? Now, stay with me, don't freak out.

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I'm not blaming Taylor at all, but something Bill Carter

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pointed out CBS had renewed the twelve thirty show with

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Taylor Tomlinson, then it got unrenewed when Taylor was like,

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you know what, I kind of want a tour and

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I can't do all this anymore. So when she decided

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not to continue, that's when they revisited twelve thirty. So

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I'm wondering when they revisited twelve thirty, then did they

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start revisiting eleven thirty and wonder, hey, could we live

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without any of this after all? Because, as Carter points out,

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if you want to reject the conspiracy theory that this

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is related to the Trump lawsuit, if you just want

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to say this is pure financials okay, maybe perhaps possibly,

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So what would have been the plan We're going to

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renew twelve thirty Taylor Tomlinson, and then if you're killing

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off the Late show at eleven thirty, what were you

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going to do? Show Big Bang theory reruns until twelve

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thirty and then run after midnight? Or was Taylor Tomlinson

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before midnight? Can he get eleven thirty? Like? What would

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have been the plan there? In a scenario where you

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can't afford the Late show franchise as CBS suspending it

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so I'm wondering here, So that makes no sense. So

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I'm wondering if Taylor walking away made the executives go, huh,

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do we really need any of this? I don't know.

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And again, please, I'm not blaming Taylor Tomlinson, Okay, can

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I make that clear. I'm just wondering if this is

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a butterfly effect Late Night I wrote. Before Stephen Colbert

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began taping Thursday's episode of The Late Show, he took

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time out for his usual audience Q and A. One

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fan asked Colbert how he deals with carrying the weight

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of the show on his shoulders. Colbert deflected the question

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and said he pointed out that he shares the workload

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with two hundred of his best friends, acknowledging the staff

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and crew. The audience was not aware at the time

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how poignant those words from Colbert were on that particular night.

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It wasn't until the end of the taping that Colbert

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did the reveal. Claire Descent was at the taping and said,

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they announced we're going to tape an alternate cold open.

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Fans were expecting another piece of comedy, right, so the

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whole show was in the can. Colbert had done a monologue,

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talked with guest Adam Schiff, he interviewed Anthony Carrigan, and

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then they taped this alternate cold open, which is the

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one we saw Late Nighter writes up until that point.

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The biggest drama to emerge during the taping was the

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fact that musician Noah Cyrus didn't appear, despite being in

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the opening credits and Colbert touting her as a guest.

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Late Nighter says Cyrus had pre taped her appearance, a

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regular practice for the Late Show. Colbert did several retakes

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of the cold open, stumbling as he performed a turn

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toward the camera for a cheesy faux surprise. Oh hey, everybody.

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After those false starts, writes Late Nighter, Colbert finally delivered

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the full cold open. Colbert recorded it only once. The

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audience member said it was complete shocked to everybody, even

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not as a regular watcher. I was getting emotional because

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it was so sad. He could tell this. This is

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probably a huge shock for everybody. After that segment, Colbert

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got up and walked to his wife, Evie. Colbert hugged

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and kissed Evie, who was seen wiping away tears, and

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the audience left. I'm wondering what's going to happen to

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the Ed Sullivan Theater. I mean, it's pretty nice theater.

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It's not pretty nice real estate. What are what's going

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to happen there? All right, let's look at the numbers.

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Latenighter dot Com says Colbert had been winning the time

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slot with two point four one seven million listeners across

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forty one first run episodes, and that the Late Show

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was the only program to increase in the first quarter,

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with the show up one percent in the eighteen to

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forty nine demo. Okay, guys, it's like again, if you

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heard the end of Friday's bonus episode. I'm team Colbert

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and I really like Late Night, even though I don't

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actually watch it, so you know, I'm part of the problem.

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In the eighteen to forty nine demo, Late Nighter says

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Colbert had two hundred and nineteen thousand viewers, So I'm

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assuming people under seventeen aren't watching it. So of the

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two point four million and change two point two or

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fifty plus, they're old people like me and as cool

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and hip as I am. That's not where the business is.

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Kimmel second place, one point seven to seven two million, however,

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beat Colbert in the demo with whopping two hundred and

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twenty thousand viewers. Again, old people watching this. The youths

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are not watching this stuff. The Tonight Show with Jimmy

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fallon third place, which is just crazy to think about

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one point one eight eight million, and even in the demo,

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you know, you think maybe Jimmy plays a little younger

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Jimmy one hundred and fifty seven thousand people between eighteen

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and forty nine. I mean, that's not I'm laughing because

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I work in podcasting. It's not that many people. It's

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not that many more than stupid Johnny Mackett. His basement

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is reaching. Honestly, Greg Guttfeld averages three point two eight

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nine million viewers and two hundred and thirty eight thousand

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in the Cool People demo. Late Nighter says Guttfeld was

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up thirty one point five percent among total viewers and

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twenty four percent in the demo. Other numbers seth Myers. Yeah,

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he has a show at twelve thirty nine hund two

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thousand total viewers, one hundred and eleven thousand in the demo. Nightline,

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that's right, Nightlines on ABC. Somehow totally forgot that existed

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eight hundred and ten thousand viewers one hundred and eight

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in the demo, and Taylor Thomason's show was getting five

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hundred and ninety one thousand viewers and eighty nine thousand

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in the demo. The Daily Show averaged nine hundred and

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ninety four thousand viewers and one hundred and ninety thousand

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in the demo. Variety says NBC continues to capture the

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majority of late night ad dollars third place, Fallon Learning

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thirty three percent or seventy nine million dollars, Seth Meyers

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eleven percent or twenty six point two million, according to Guideline,

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So the NBC sales department getting it done. Jimmy Fallon

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being advertiser friendly smart business Late Show was seventy point

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two million more than Kimmel, less than Fallon. Bridy writes

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there's a feeling that some of Colbier's commentary makes Late

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Show something some advertisers prefer to avoid. So what could

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the future look like? Well, Jimmy Kimmel signed a new

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deal in twenty twenty two, is com instantly threatening to

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walk away. He's contracted through the end of the twenty

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five twenty six broadcast seasons, so that would be May

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of twenty six, same as Colbert. Now, Jimmy and his

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agent they have what we call hand because if there

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is no Late Show on CBS, Kimmel would then have

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the number one show and the CBS audience, big or

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small as it is, they're going to go somewhere. So

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I think Kimmel's in a good place and that show

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will continue, would be my guess. Deadline understands that ABC

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has no plans to cancel the show, and Rob Mills,

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who oversees Late Night, has said ABC will back Jimmy

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Kimmel until he decides to clear out his desk. Both

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Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers are signed through twenty twenty eight.

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On his podcast this week, John Stewart said, I believe

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the timing of this was after Colbert made his commentary

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on Monday, but before the news of the Late Show ending.

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John Stewart had said, Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from them.

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I believe that it's a reference to Skydanants, the new owners.

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They haven't called me and said, like, don't get too

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comfortable in that office, Stuart, but let me tell you something.

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I've been kicked out of crappier establishments than that. We'll

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land on our feet. Stuart said he honestly doesn't know

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if sky Dance would kill the Daily Show, which has

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been on the air since nineteen ninety six. He said,

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I'd like to believe without the Daily Show, I don't know.

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Comedy Central is kind of like Muzak at this point.

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I think we're the only sort of life that exists

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on a current basis other than South Park, but it's

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the only thing on there. I'd like to think we

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bring enough value to the property if they're looking at

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it purely as a real estate transaction. I think we

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bring a lot of value, but that may not be

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their consideration. They may sell the whole effing place for ports.

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I don't know. We'll deal with it when we do.

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John Stewart said good things about the staff, including the

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showrunner and Jordan klepperd as Alantic, Ronnie Chang, Michael Costa.

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He said, I'm so happy. I'm proud of everybody that

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works over there. They want to do that and knock

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themselves out. As Jay Leno would say about Dorito's go

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ahead crunch all you want, we'll make more. We'll figure

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that out when the time comes. That is your bonus

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episode again, a Sunday morning normal episode where I won't

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talk about Colbert at all because I had already recorded that. Tomorrow,

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at noon Eastern time, I will drop another bonus episode

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about Colbert because I've got a lot more about this,

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all right, enjoy your Saturday