July 20, 2025

The Demise of Late-Night TV: Colbert Cancellation and Industry Shifts

Show Notes
Transcript

In this bonus episode of Daily Comedy News, host Johnny Mac discusses recent events surrounding the late-night TV landscape, focusing on the cancellation of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.' Mac recaps key developments from Friday through Sunday, including reactions to Shane Gillis at the ESPYs and analysis of Colbert's departure. The episode explores insights from articles in The Guardian, The Atlantic, and other sources about the decline of traditional late-night programming and the financial strains contributing to these changes. Mac also touches on the future of 'Saturday Night Live' and other late-night shows, reflecting on the broader industry impact and the fate of the staff affected by these shifts.

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Callarogas Shark Media. Hi. There, I'm Jenny Mack with another

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bonus episode of Daily Comedy News, Quick house Keeping, going

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back to Friday, because I've dropped a lot of content.

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Friday Morning recapt Shing Gillis in the SP's I really

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liked that episode, but it's gotten buried in the Colbert

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of it all. There was a bonus episode about Colbert,

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initial reactions and some analysis for Friday afternoon in case

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you missed that. Saturday there was a normal episode in

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the feed and a bonus episode about Colbert. And today

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on Sunday there was a normal episode that it went

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out earlier. Today this bonus episode that you're listening to now,

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and then there'll be a normal episode on Monday morning

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and from there we'll see where the news is. In

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The Guardian, Jesse Hasinger writes CBS has ripped off a

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band age of the big three networks have been applying

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the similar wounds for years. Late night programming simply doesn't

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mean as much as it used to. With smaller network

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lead ins from primetime lineups and more audience choices for comedy,

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music or even the dopey celebrity games that Jimmy Fallon

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throws together. Saturday Night Live has retained some cultural cachet

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thanks to a combination of lower commitment twenty episodes a

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year and a night where many people don't have to

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work the next day versus eight times as many, all

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airing on weeknights, legacy branding, and sketch comedy that travels

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well online these days is routinely one of the highest

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rated network shows of the week when it airs a

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new episode, offering an encouraging sign that old timeslot rules

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about viewership no longer apply. It's also extremely expensive to

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produce difficult to replicate, which nonetheless looks more viable than

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the tired talk show format. I will jump in there.

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You know, all this conversation has people wondering about Saturday

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Night Live, post Lorne Michaels. You know, we're clearly getting

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a season fifty one, but that show is reportedly expensive

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to produce, and you know, maybe you don't do twenty episodes,

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maybe do fewer episodes, Maybe the cast is smaller. Who

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knows what the future for that show is. The Guardian

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writes this could be a good thing for comic minds,

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including Colbert or Conan O'Brien. Some comedians seem unable to

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resist the siren call of late night talk shows, chasing

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the tonight show dream, even when the actual job are

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made out of reach. That Colbert can face cancelation anyway,

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should alongside Conan O'Brien losing his to night show gig

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years ago, the signals to newcomers that the rarefied era

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of the national late night talk show host is also

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getting pretty thin. May be unbreathable, yet Trump has sucked

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up some of that oxygen too. Even with the challenges

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cited by CBS, it's difficult to believe that vanquishing a

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long time issue of Trump mockery wasn't at least considered

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a side benefit of canceling the Late Show. He's giving

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ahead beyond Trump personally smuging up the balance sheets, He's

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helping the hasten the demise of late night comedy simply

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by being himself. Seeming to provide the perfect target, a venal,

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dim witted perma celebrity with an army of devoted sikophants,

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but after two non consecutive administrations have flooded the zone

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with grotesquere ease, performing a lightly zinging monologu or sketches

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as warm up back for good natured interviews seems unlikely

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to entice either those craving anti Trump Catharsis or those

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desperate to believe in his strongman powers. Colbert took a

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somewhat less cutesy approach than his competitor, Fallon seemed to

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be all that was necessary to mark him as a

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troublemaker in the Atlantic David Graham Rights. For much of

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the twentieth century, American broadcast television revolved around three networks, NBC, ABC,

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and CBS. The network was home to Edward R. Murrow,

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who brought World War II in Europe home to Americans

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on CBS Radio. After the war, Murrow's reporting played a

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pivotal role in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy. Walter Cronkite

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dominated American evenings from his perch at the Evening News,

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and from the days of Mike Wallace to the more

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recent era of Leslie Stall and Scott Pelley. Sixty minutes

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set the standard for long form television reporting. Yet CBS's

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current ownership seems determined to demolish this legacy. The Atlantic,

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then Rights, Perhaps this is true but the network that

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once made Cronkite the most trusted man in America no

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longer gets the benefit of the doubt. CBS's owners had

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made a series of decisions capitulating to President Donald Trump,

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and the surprise choice to allow Colbert, a consistent prominent

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Trump critic, to walk, seems like part of that pattern.

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In twenty twenty three, Sherry Redstone began seeking a buyer

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for the company, eventually striking a deal in twenty twenty

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four with Skydants. The merger requires federal approval. The President

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now seems favorably disposed towards the merger. Last month he

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spoke highly of Skydant's head David Ellison. Still, the deal

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has not yet been approved by the FCC. Journalism, along

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with Colbert's program, makes up only a small portion of

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Paramount's portfolio, and so business executives might view sacrificing them

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to preserve a deal as a prudent I cold blooded maneuver.

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Daniel Feinberg, I'm a big fan of Daniel, he writes

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for The Hollywood Reporter. He says, I'm sure the Late

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Show with Stephen Colbert's absolutely ending because of a financial

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decision against the challenging backdrop of Late Night, and it's

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not related in any way to the show's performance, content

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or other matters happening at Paramount. The official reasons for

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the cancelation or whatever they are, and who am I

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to question the co CEO of Paramount Global, the president

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of CBS Entertainment, and the president of CBS Studios. Nobody,

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that's who. But official reasons and optics are two different things.

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And if the folks in charge of CBS didn't know

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what the optics were, they wouldn't have released a statement

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saying that what we think we can see with our

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eyes and infer with our common sense definitely aren't the truth.

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The optics here may not have any connection of facts,

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but man, the optics here suck, and they suck on

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a slew of levels that are all addressed in the

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statement as things that we're not supposed to be thinking

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about but can't help but think about. So it's not related.

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It's anything happening in Paramount. Good to know what could

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possibly be happening at Paramount. A merger between CBS parent company,

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Paramount Gold and Skydad's a massive deal that was seen

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as a major part of why CBS just settled a lawsuit.

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It'skid being ahead. Colbert isn't going anywhere for ten months,

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and it's hard to imagine him agreeing to stick around

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for a swan song in which his content is being restricted.

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So let's assume that he's going to spend a season

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lampooning Trump, even as a lame duck. It's giving a

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head again. They're a less political talk show host. Jimmy

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Fallon plays his various games and goofs around with celebrities.

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You know what, this room for that, and I want

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nothing to do with it, but that's okay too. And

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when Seth Myers isn't taking closer looks, sometimes he's just

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drinking with stars and making fun of his own errors,

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And you know what, there's room for that. And if

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Netflix would renew Everybody's Live with Malaney, I'd like to

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believe this room for doing a talk show episode blindfolded

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or fighting a trio of fourteen year old boys on

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live television. At some point, the CBS might just air

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whatever procedural reality shows in the ten PM slot, kick

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it a local news, and then play the national anthem

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and go black, just like back in the good old days.

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The Hollor Reporter dusted off the Good One podcast. Seth

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Myers was on there about a month ago, and let's

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revisit what Seth said. He had said, it's helpful for

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us to cross pollinate the information we're hearing from the

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people in charge of our networks, to make sure it's

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all checking out with everybody else, and also to commiserate,

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because everybody who's doing this to some degree obviously remembers

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a time when things are a little more flush. Seth

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was asked at that time, are we in the end

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era of late night TV? Seth said, there's always a

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chance that something turns around all of a sudden it's

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on the upswing again, But I would certainly bet on

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there being fewer late night shows in the future now

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that one. Apparently Colbert's staff didn't find out about this

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much before the rest of us. Some members of the

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team went on social media. Writer Philippie A. Trus Medina

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called Stephen Colbert absolute the greatest and said, we got

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ten more months of this, so you better tune in

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because you know we're about to go effing loco. Producer

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director Jake Plunkett said was the run of a lifetime.

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So grateful for this job and the people I've met here.

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One thing I will say, Stephen Colbert is an insanely

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good man who treated us with a tremendous amount of love. Also,

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he's insanely funny. I'll run through a wall for him

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for the next ten months. You know, let's stop there.

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You know Stephen Colbert, love him, good guy. Everybody loves

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Stephen Colbert. He's going to be fine. He's made a

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lot of money. He'll be able to work again if

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he wants to work again. Nothing else can do a podcast.

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But what about the two hundred people that work on

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the show. What's going to happen to them? Jake Plunkett

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said the fall of Late Night is so sad. I

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grew up loving Conan snl Ferguson Letterman. Writer Carly Moseley

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on Instagram said, I love the show. I love these people.

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I love these people in the show forever and ever. Amen,

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see y'all till May. Writer Michael cruz Keene said the

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Late Show gig was the best job I could imagine.

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Producer and segment director Ballard C. Boyd said some unfortunate

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news from the home own office and pointed out the

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part of an av Club headline that said CBS executives

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bent over backward to deny that this was related to

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the trump of it all. Now, this is really interesting.

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Deadline dusted this off in May of twenty twenty five.

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Check your calendar, not that long ago. George Cheeks, co

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CEO Paramount Global and President and chief executive of CBS,

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told Deadline that he really likes our hand. The day

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part is challenging from an ad sales perspective. I love

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our hand. We have the number one personally for the

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last nine years, and we still do believe in the

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day part. But it is a challenge. A Late Night

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producer told Deadline the news was depressing and weird, and

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I feel like there's more to this story. It is

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believed the Late Show costs slightly less than seventy five

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million dollars per year to produce before adding in Colbert's salary.

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So let's assume, just to keep this easy, Stephen Colbert's

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salary is one dollar. It's probably not. Let's just keep

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it easy. So if the show costs seventy five million

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dollars to produce, a Yesterday, I mentioned late shows a

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taken twenty twenty four was seventy point two million dollars.

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So you're already losing five million dollars before you pay

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Steven Colbert. Again, my spidy sense is tingling about the

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conspiracy theory, but the financials? Yeah? Now, is there goodwill

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to having the Late Show on? Is it a promotional vehicle?

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All that? Absolutely true? There's brand imaging. You know, there's

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you know, who are we as CBS? Well we're the

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home of sixty minutes and the Late Show, and you

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know you start picking away that, then you're just the

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home of Oh yeah, I put that on sometimes to

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watch football. Some reports guess Colbert's salaries between fifteen and

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twenty million. Let's use the fifteen number. So again, seventy

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five plus fifteen is ninety. You make seventy million in ads?

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Is it worth twenty million dollars? Is there a way

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to make that up? Could we do fewer shows? Could

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we have less of a staff? Could we do fewer episodes?

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A place I used to work always love to ask

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hosts to do additional things. So you'd say, host daily

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comedy news, but also have to do a shift on

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the jazz station. That kind of stuff went on in

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a place that once worked. So I don't know. I

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think it's terrible, But part of me is looking at

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this going why don't we just air prices? Right? We run?

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Times have changed. I don't know, very mixed feelings. I

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am truly sad that this is ending, and it is

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absolutely stunning. I may have done what four bonus episodes

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about this single topic. Now, all right, and that is

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your bonus episode, like I said, and I'm back in

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the morning with a normal episode and then we'll take

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it from there. Appreciate you listening.