RoidingOldManCBS to Cancel ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Citing ‘Financial Decision’
jordanlundTBH, I haven’t watched late night television since we lost Letterman, Ferguson and O’Brien.
We will never again see the likes of:
or:
or:
If you prefer long form humor:
Lettermans Greatest Moments - Dave visits the GE Building
HappySkullsplitterI didn’t even know he was sick
This sucks to see. Hopefully he’ll get picked up somewhere else and go back to a format closer to what the Colbert report used to be.
Yeah I didn’t really enjoy prim and proper corporate Colbert. His show was pretty mediocre. I believe it was also his decision to step away from his original persona and move on to a standard talk show host, so he actually wanted that change. Ferguson is still the GOAT for me.
boydsterI thought it was because Comedy Central had a claimed trademark or something regarding the character he played, but it’s been a while so I might be misremembering
He didn’t want to mix the Colbert character with the Late Night show.
Irrelevant and refuted by Colbert’s own words, but ok. Viacom quite literally wouldn’t allow it.
hollywoodreporter.com/…/stephen-colbert-colbert-r…
But on Wednesday night’s Late Show, the real Stephen Colbert indicated that Comedy Central’s legal team is barring his old character from appearing on CBS.
“This is true, immediately after that show, CBS’ top lawyer was contacted by the top lawyer for another company to say that the character Stephen Colbert is their intellectual property,” the real Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday.
He continued, “So it is with a heavy heart that I announce that thanks to corporate lawyers, the character Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, will never be seen again.”
The audience began to boo but the Late Show host insisted there was nothing he could do.
“I feel the same way, but what can I do? The lawyers have spoken. I cannot reasonably argue I own my face or name,” he said. “And as much as I’d like to have that guy on again, I can’t.”
No way CBS would have allowed him to do the show in that character… Maybe a segment every now and then, but not entire episodes. Not on CBS.
He quite literally was legally disallowed by Viacom (Comedy Central’ owners). Not CBS, where he told the audience he would love to bring the character back but was not legally allowed to do.
It wouldn’t have been the entire show.
Or go back to doing shit like Strangers with Candy
Stametstl;dr - Late Night was killed by the Internet. This has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the increasing irrelevance of television.
Late night is dying. This isn’t a conspiracy. This isn’t bowing to Trump. It’s just good timing for Trump.
Before I say anything else, I need to make one thing abundantly clear that these headlines keep being sketchy about. Colbert was not cancelled. His contract just wasn’t renewed. That is a pretty big distinction. One of them is ending a contract pre-emptively, the other is just deciding to not continue with those services after an agreed upon point.
Everyone keeps suggesting this is because of Trump but you’re ignoring what has been happening to both the Late Show and Late Night in general for years. The entire format is dying. Most people don’t watch the show live anymore, they do it on YouTube. Financially that’s not viable for the studios. The cost they put into it doesn’t equal out over the amount they can get back from YouTube. It doesn’t make financial sense for them to keep making the show when no one is watching it on its primary method. They could try to pivot the entire show to YouTube but that also would be kinda hard to justify the cost.
Like all of you in these comments seem to forget that Conan was reduced to 30 minutes before being cancelled, not having any Late Show replacement. Seem to forget that Corden was cancelled and replaced with an internet game show. Seem to forget that Samantha Bee’s show wasn’t replaced by any late show either. Or Lily Singh’s. Or that the Outstanding Variety Talk Series has gone from 6 entries in 2019 to just 3 entries in 2025. Or the fact that Colbert has lost 1 million viewers from 2019 to 2025 while still retaining topdog for Late Night in viewership? If the other hosts didn’t get bumps in viewers (they didn’t) then it’s because they just stopped watching…
Why? First off, the entire market is saturated. You’ve got too many Late Night hosts to choose from, all of them in essentially the time slot or close to it. All of them then talk about the exact same thing. The only thing you’re watching one show over the other for is the host or the guests that episode. Then there’s the focus on American politics which makes sense because it’s an American show but it alienates people outside the country from watching it on YouTube. And due to it having a heavy focus on American politics, like a lot does now a days, a lot of people are exhausted and don’t want to tune in. They want an escape not another reminder. Not to mention the fact that attention spans have become shorter and we’ve gotten accustomed to on-demand viewing.
Seth Meyers is probably the only host who could easily survive this. Fallon and Kimmel have way too much money dumped into their shows, granted Fallon has more shows so maybe more pull. Meyers runs everything on a shoestring and has a hard focus on politics, not splitting his attention. He focuses the majority of his non-Guest screentime on politics with stuff like A Closer Look as well so his show doesn’t feel quite as pulled in two directions. The guest conversations are also super relaxed and casual, seeming to focus more on smaller celebrities than having constant big ones. He’s already basically an Internet show so the transition for him is fine. Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon? They’re too big, too grandiose, too expensive and now have far too little profit from the investment.
Edit: Downvote me all you want. This isn’t some grand plan to try and silence Colbert. The only people who listen to him are left leaning to begin with. He’s not reaching anyone new or changing minds. He’s not being the single educating point. Him being cancelled on its own might have a point but considering every late night show has been talking about the death of Late Night for years? This is a reach. Enjoy your bizarre conspiratorial nonsense. I’ll go shave with Occam.
Edit 2: I messed up and said Lily Singh’s show wasn’t replaced by another Late Show. It was. The Amber Ruffin Show.
chemical_cutthroatGet him and John Stewart back together. Throw in some John Oliver, too.
synae[he/him]Holy shit, killing off the late show? It’s an institution
Nobody gives a shit about late night TV anymore but boomers. I mean the entire concept has been obsolete for years now due to streaming… Anyone under the age of 55 just watches clips on YouTube if anything from the show was worth watching.
Criticized Trump. Had to go or the merger was not going to be approved by Trump’s ass-suckers.
Or mb this echochamber isn’t financially viable
If echo chambers weren’t financially viable then Fox News wouldn’t exist.
Said “this” talking specifically about this one and not all of them.
It s just that mainstream leftist political commentator are an endanger species.
U got the place for 20 year it s simply normal that the opinion siwtch at one point
Colbert isn’t a leftist, a liberal maybe. Most of americans are liberal to some degree.
I used to watch “Late shows” on YouTube, but after the 2nd time Trump got elected, I stopped consuming any political content from the US, and again after the “Liberation Day”, I stopped consuming any US produced media (including YouTube content creators). I just can’t deal with so much “Trump content”, nor do I want to keep to, in any manner, help content that thrives on that.
I just can’t deal with a second season of “The House of Trump”.
I’m not implying that this is why it got cancelled, just expressing the reason to why I even stopped watching it, on YouTube. Can’t say if others have done the same or not, but following American politics is… exhausting.
Conan is the only one worth watching/listening to. Hardly ever gets into politics.
Funniest podcast available too imo (well, maybe that or Bonanas for Bonanza)
I do love Conan. But he only has a podcast now, right? I loved those bits about “Fan Corrections”! LOL
He’s got an amazing travel show on HBO Max, but each season only has a handful of episodes. But other than that, yeah pretty much.
His podcast is outstanding, and the longer form interviews show how much funnier he is than he could ever be within the format of a late night show.
They also have a fan segment every week, in addition to the normal episode, where they have a fan on for like 20 min or something
I’ll have to check it out then, thanks for the suggestion! ♥
Do it! Every episode is hilarious, but the ones with Martin Short are always hysterical if you wanted a recommendation for where to start…
If you do like it, I would suggest considering starting from the beginning, as it’s really fucking funny to listen to how his relationship with producer and co-host Matt Gourley has evolved.
Also, Sona is on it and she’s awesome.
I hope he uses this to go off the rails going into the election summer
He’s done in March 2026 though.
I thought he said May, but, anyway, I said going into the election summer
Edit : the midterms
Oh, my bad, it is May. I hope just his show going off the air helps drive enough attention to whatever he does next.
At least there’s a decent amount of time for his team to plan a new project, or leave the US or whatever.
I see some sort of streaming show or HBO. No way he and his writing team all leave the US. I don’t even know who could give him a decent platform anyway
As much as I would love an uncensored Colbert, HBO Max/Max/HBO already has John Oliver. And they kinda occupy the same entertainment niche. They are not going to cannibalize their own ratings of that big draw.
They could do it,the same way everyone was on Comedy Central. That worked and they complimented each other. Besides, Oliver is once a week. I bet a lot of people, myself included, already watch both of the shows
Very true. Just something on the snoo site that I liked. What if HBO fired bill Maher and replaced him with Colbert.
I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I gave Maher a shot a few years ago, but just couldn’t take it. I don’t understand what role Maher fills. He’s not progressive, but doesn’t have conservative cred either. I’m sure he thinks he’s being authentically moderate, but he seems like a sleeper right-wing shill
I loved the Tek Jannsen short cartoons he had on occaisonally
They were based off of William Shatner’s TekWar series of books. My uncle gave me a few and I tried reading them. Just imagine Tek Jannsen, but without any of the humor.
I feel like he just replaced Letterman a year or two ago and now the show is already ending. Where the hell did all the time go? How am I nearly 40 already?
If it makes you feel better, this has nothing to do with normal Hollywood celebrity shuffling and contractual disputes, this is entirely targeted political censorship. Colbert is/was the highest rated talk show on network television and was just nominated for an emmy.
That doesn’t really confort me much, given that I just realized that it has been TEN YEARS since Letterman left! I hate how quickly time started moving when COVID first hit. Time never slowed back down, it never slowed back down!
JackbyDevI’m surprised it’s that short. Thought it was at least 12.
They’re going to speak Chinese on Mars because of this president.