Late Show ending May 2026

[tall_guy1]

Does Gutfeld have big-name guests on his show?

He had Jeff Dunham once.

 

[radiofan2023]

It actually depends on the how the format of the show would be in the event of moving it to a cheaper city (And it does not need to be a city that requires union rates) where if it decided to do away with celebrity interviews altogether the expenses that would needed to be spent on those guests if any would be eliminated. If it had decided to make all of the celebrity interviews be virtual (With the celebrities appearing virtually from where ever he or she is at at the time) the expenses if any would be limited to the cost of Online Bandwidth.

That sounds like it would be a disaster.

 

[gopher101media]

Back from a day in Alameda at the California Historical Radio Society's Radio Day by the Bay (see that thread in the SF board for pictures), so just catching up:

1) IF Colbert got reckless, his staff (more than 100 people) would get hurt. Stephen Colbert paid his writing staff out of his own pocket during the strikes. He's not gonna screw them over in a fit of pique now. And---if he's going anywhere else for some other project, he's likely going to want a lot of those people (some of whom have been with him since The Colbert Report) to come along. He needs to have their backs more than anything at this point, and from everything I've ever heard about him, that'll be his priority.

2) If CBS is losing $40 million a year on a show that costs $100 million to produce and gets a $30 million tax credit, there's not really a there there for a cheaper "Late Show". Especially as revenues for the timeslot continue to decline. If they can't make money being number one in late night, the answer is to get out of late night.

Regarding Number 1 - Colbert getting reckless at this point would end up being a de-facto Fatal Mistake for him and his staff as CBS at that point would be too quick to fire Colbert and push him out the door with no need to pay him off at all.


Regarding Number 2 - The tax credit was likely reducing the costs to produce and without those tax credits might have pushed the losses to $70 Million a year. CBS if it wanted to make The Late Show much cheaper then they would have shown Colbert the door in 2023 instead of re-signing him

Okay, so what are we talking about here?

"From Fort Smith, Arkansas, it's Late Night with whoever'll work for a hundred grand. Tonight---live via Zoom---"

Who'd watch?

And as the audience numbers decline what guests are you going to get to agree to appear---even from their living room?

The thing about show business, is to get the business, you gotta put on a show. When the money dries up for that kinda show (vaudeville, big splashy prime-time variety hours), you stop doing that kind of show.

Regarding where production of the show could relocate to can be any city with a much more better political climate that does not have a extreme cost of living and excessive taxes like both New York City and Los Angeles.

Reformatting the show or any show to lower the production costs if done right can increase the ratings.

Regarding show business - It's true that many kinds of shows had been discontinued over the years as they ceased to be profitable.

Some examples of those kinds of shows that people stopped doing.

Vaudeville - Was undone with the advancement of Motion Picture technology.
Short Subjects - The arrival of Television and it's expansion of it's availability throughout the country lead to all of the Movie Studios discontinuing producing them by the end of 1957.
Full-service radio - Faded out when Television started to take off in popularity and Radio in general moved towards specialized formats which were cheaper.
After school specials - Disappeared due to a increasing number of network affiliates dropping them deciding that syndicated programming like Oprah was a much better fit to their schedules and the proliferation of Cable Television was a factor.

From the point of view of CBS they decided that getting out of Late Night television was the most financially viable way possible.

 

[michael hagerty]

Does Gutfeld have big-name guests on his show?

Not the one I watched (this past Thursday, the most recent available on Friday afternoon.

It’s not that kind of show. I really can’t come up with a better description than the one I gave earlier: a sloppier, smutty version of The Five.

 

[tall_guy1]

Here's his book he wrote.

 

[davideduardo]

Not the one I watched (this past Thursday, the most recent available on Friday afternoon.

It’s not that kind of show. I really can’t come up with a better description than the one I gave earlier: a sloppier, smutty version of The Five.

It's indeed a bit of The Five, but The Five is news content driven and Gotfeld! is news curiosity driven.

There are 4 guests, some almost always there and some occasional. They pick up themes Gutfeld poses, and then toss them around until commercials kick in. Repeat with new theme, new discussion, and more ads. A couple of segments have names, but are basically politically incorrect titles under which more current events can be shoved in.

There is a lot of calling the best known Democrats by High School Junior High School nicknames.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I suspect Colbert will be fine in the long run. He will reappear on a different platform and won't be hamstrung by CBS's stupidity.

Will he remain under Trump's radar?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

The days of the big budget network TV show are over.

at least outside of sports

 

[michael hagerty]

It's indeed a bit of The Five, but The Five is news content driven and Gotfeld! is news curiosity driven.

There are 4 guests, some almost always there and some occasional. They pick up themes Gutfeld poses, and then toss them around until commercials kick in. Repeat with new theme, new discussion, and more ads. A couple of segments have names, but are basically politically incorrect titles under which more current events can be shoved in.

There is a lot of calling the best known Democrats by High School Junior High School nicknames.

So, nothing at all like Tonight, Late Show or Late Night. A different kind of show.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

There is a lot of calling the best known Democrats by High School Junior High School nicknames.

so it's something Fox news viewers can watch with their grandchildren?

 

[michael hagerty]

Here's his book he wrote.
View attachment 9739

Can't even give him points for originality, can we?

 

[davideduardo]

So, nothing at all like Tonight, Late Show or Late Night. A different kind of show.

But, for the Republicans, a bit of Letterman, Carson and even Leno and Steve Allen. Different formatics, but a lot of throwback elements.

 

[michael hagerty]

But, for the Republicans, a bit of Letterman, Carson and even Leno and Steve Allen. Different formatics, but a lot of throwback elements.

Not in the show I watched suffered through. Chevy Chase's show on FOX, maybe, but none of those four.

Zero wit, lazy jokes, just a mind-numbing reinforcement of "we hate liberals", and without even the Colbert/Kimmel/Meyers peg of something the newsmaker actually said or did that sets up a punchline.

I was actually hoping to see what a conservative version of smart late-night comedy was. I didn't.

The joke is Hunter Biden wanted to bang his stepmom? We're going back 40 years for a Richard Gere gerbil joke? A CBS correspondent claims PTSD, so his doctor is a gynecologist?

I can't figure out if this show is why the stereotypical right-winger is mean and ignorant or if it's a hit because the stereotypical right-winger is mean and ignorant.

It makes William F. Buckley threatening to deck Gore Vidal and calling him a queer look like Masterpiece Theatre.

 

[gopher101media]

Corporate bean counters: "That will still cost us money when ad revenue is declining."

Those bean counters in any scenario where Colbert agreed to a pay cut or was replaced with someone who would host for way less than what Colbert is being paid would concede that it would cost less and buy some time and the same would be said if any of the other cost cutting changes mentioned were implemented.

 

[gopher101media]

Kimmel makes noises about retirement every year, but if he gets an infusion of eyeballs from Colbert's departure (he has 1.7 million viewers now) and ABC is supportive, I can see him renewing just to be a thorn in Trump's side.

Even if ABC is supportive in that scenario Disney (ABC's parent company) or the network bean counters can easily prevent Kimmel from renewing citing "Financial reasons"

 

[bmasters1981]

Not the one I watched (this past Thursday, the most recent available on Friday afternoon.

It’s not that kind of show. I really can’t come up with a better description than the one I gave earlier: a sloppier, smutty version of The Five.

And FOX claims that such is funnier than CBS' and the other networks' liberal anti-Trump comedy-- hardly (I wouldn't touch a minute of it, and never plan to).

 

[Rusty Muck]

1) IF Colbert got reckless, his staff (more than 100 people) would get hurt. Stephen Colbert paid his writing staff out of his own pocket during the strikes. He's not gonna screw them over in a fit of pique now. And---if he's going anywhere else for some other project, he's likely going to want a lot of those people (some of whom have been with him since The Colbert Report) to come along. He needs to have their backs more than anything at this point, and from everything I've ever heard about him, that'll be his priority.

I won't disagree. The question is what would be considered "reckless" when late-night hosts have poked fun of/made jokes against their own network since ... gosh ... Jack Paar? Let alone if CBS standards and practices will now be monitoring and censoring jokes/content altogether, particularly in the monologue and especially if the show just continues as-is. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I just have doubts about the show lasting until May because that itself is a risk for everyone involved, and especially for their morale. You'd have to think morale would be terribly low because they all know that what they have now—a big-budget, big-ticket late-night show on network television—will most likely never happen again. Even if when Colbert gets a streaming deal somewhere he won't be able to take his entire staff with him, and he knows it.

 

[michael hagerty]

And FOX claims that such is funnier than CBS' and the other networks' liberal anti-Trump comedy-- hardly

All it does is further the perception that the people on that side of the aisle have underdeveloped taste.

(I wouldn't touch a minute of it, and never plan to).

I really wanted to see. I voted Republican for 40 years, but I could appreciate mainstream late-night comedy. I could tell the difference between a joke the guy I voted for had coming and unnecessary roughness.

Naively, I thought maybe---maybe---Gutfeld was gonna do the same on a conservative level. I wanted to know what I was gonna be talking about.

This show just screams to me that FOX's and Gutfeld's opinion of their own audience's intelligence, sense of humor and taste is actually lower than mine was before watching it.

And the show is a hit, so I guess FOX and Gutfeld are right.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Not the one I watched (this past Thursday, the most recent available on Friday afternoon.

It’s not that kind of show. I really can’t come up with a better description than the one I gave earlier: a sloppier, smutty version of The Five.

It's basically his old show RedEye but without libertarian sidekick Andy Levy as an "ombudsman". And THAT show was "The Five, but in the middle of the night".

I remember seeing somewhere that RedEye, again airing at 3 a.m. ET, once outrated every primetime show on CNN. Which goes to show how built-in Fox's audience is.

 

[michael hagerty]

I won't disagree. The question is what would be considered "reckless" when late-night hosts have poked fun of/made jokes against their own network since ... gosh ... Jack Paar? Let alone if CBS standards and practices will now be monitoring and censoring jokes/content altogether, particularly in the monologue and especially if the show just continues as-is. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

In the same way that Letterman was allowed to finish out his run on NBC before going to CBS and wasn't terribly gentle with NBC/GE, I'm betting that as long as Colbert isn't egregious (and yeah, that's a moving target these days and may not be the same if Ellison gets the keys before the end of the run), it stays on. CBS has already collected tens of millions of dollars in advertising commitments for a season of Late Show with Stephen Colbert---new episodes, not repeats.

I just have doubts about the show lasting until May because that itself is a risk for everyone involved, and especially for their morale. You'd have to think morale would be terribly low because they all know that what they have now—a big-budget, big-ticket late-night show on network television—will most likely never happen again. Even if when Colbert gets a streaming deal somewhere he won't be able to take his entire staff with him, and he knows it.

These are show people. There's a very big urge to go out on top. They're more likely to see themselves (certainly more than Fallon) as writing the final chapter of late-night TV (though it will be Fallon or Kimmel who turns out the lights).

Also, most of the hundred or so people associated with the show will want another gig somewhere, likely in arts or media. A poor performance won't help. Neither would the show ending early---especially for cause. A lot of these people are still recovering financially from the writers' strike.

And---for the most part, Colbert is a class act. Remaining one, doing the best show possible under the circumstances (and those circumstances are just his and his staff's emotions---the budget for a full season of big shows is there), is a great way to have your reputation shine and make CBS/Paramount/Skydance look like assholes by comparison.

I think now, the guest list is going to be really impressive. He'll be able to book anyone he wants, and the last week or two of the show will probably be as close to the Carson goodbye parade of stars as American television in 2026 gets.