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Late Show ending May 2026

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www.thewrap.com

Jon Stewart on Potential 'Daily Show' Cancellation After Skydance Merger: 'Been Kicked Out of S--ttier Establishments'

Jon Stewart says he is not worried about Skydance potentially canceling "The Daily Show," saying "we'll land on our feet."
www.thewrap.com www.thewrap.com

Jon Stewart said something similar about the Daily Show having the same fate that the Late Show just went through.

www.thewrap.com

Adam Schiff, Elizabeth Warren and More Call for Transparency Around Colbert's 'Late Show' Cancellation: 'A Political Favor'

The cancellation from CBS comes after Colbert criticized his parent company on-air for their $16 million settlement with Trump.
www.thewrap.com www.thewrap.com

Here's more specifically to the Late Show. Yes we need to wait and see how the Skydance crew will respond once that deal is approved.
 
crainbebo said:
I'm actually not surprised, given broadcast TV is dying and the audience isn't there at 11:35 ET/PT anymore.
I expect 3/4ths of the affiliates will move to an hour of local news and then syndication or infomercials, or both.
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Broadcast TV isn't dying in fact it's getting stronger due to cord cutting. And for the CBS TV stations reruns, paid programs or late night movies would get higher ratings than Colbert.
 
I'm wondering if there will be reruns of "Strangers With Candy" where a much younger Stephen Colbert convincing plays a homosexual teacher. This of course was before his convincing "Fox news type commentator" on the Colbert Report, and before he portrayed a very poor imitation of a David Letterman type late night host. I never watched Colbert much on the Late Show. His whining night after night maid the Jimmy Kimmel's nightly tears seem less annoying. When I want to watch a man child play beer pong with celebrities, I tune in to that young man appealing to the 12 year olds who are allowed to stay up late and watch the Tonight Show. I think we'll all survive the elimination of Stephen Colbert. When he is no longer a celebrity he can go back to pronouncing his last name correctly. We'll all be ok and CBS will make a few bucks when they sell the Ed Sullivan Theater, so it's kind of a win/win.
 
At this juncture in the discussion, I think it is important to reiterate two key points:
  1. CBS has not announced what replacement program(s) will go in The Late Show's time slot;
  2. The Network has not **officially** given the hour back to the affiliates. And remember, CBS is still programing the 12:30 hour next season as well.
Having said that, let's look forward to a human gestational period's worth of speculation.

That is all. As you were...
 
Rollo-Smokes said:
At this juncture in the discussion, I think it is important to reiterate two key points:
  1. CBS has not announced what replacement program(s) will go in The Late Show's time slot;
  2. The Network has not **officially** given the hour back to the affiliates. And remember, CBS is still programing the 12:30 hour next season as well.
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CBS will likely just program two straight hours of Comics Unleashed to an audience of no one. Clearly Byron Allen needs the money.

When that happens, most broadcast chains will be looking at that and reevaluating their want to pay money to carry CBS. WANF will not be the first major disaffiliation.
 
In this morning's Reliable Sources newsletter, CNN's Brian Stelter doesn't downplay the politics involved, but he also says a source close to the show confirmed to him that Late Show is "bleeding red ink".

Two things can be true at the same time, but I'd be willing to bet lunch that, in a different political climate, the show would continue for a few more years and CBS would look for creative ways to generate revenue from and for it.

 
Rollo-Smokes said:
At this juncture in the discussion, I think it is important to reiterate two key points:
  1. CBS has not announced what replacement program(s) will go in The Late Show's time slot;
  2. The Network has not **officially** given the hour back to the affiliates. And remember, CBS is still programing the 12:30 hour next season as well.
Click to expand...
Until CBS announces that the Byron Allen cash cow has finished at 12:37AM/11:37PM CT/MT. I have a feeling CBS is finished programming the late-night timeslot, especially in an era of Paramount+, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Prime Video. Local stations can cash in the extra $$$ from an hour of local news at 11PM. In fact, KIRO 7 Seattle has done that for several years on Sunday nights. Head honchos at WCBS, WBBM, KTVT, and others could do the exact same thing.
You might recall that back in the CBS Late Night days, many stations just preempted it altogether and aired sitcom reruns and Entertainment Tonight from syndication. Revenue was often the reason, as well as popularity.
 
michael hagerty said:
In this morning's Reliable Sources newsletter, CNN's Brian Stelter doesn't downplay the politics involved, but he also says a source close to the show confirmed to him that Late Show is "bleeding red ink".

Two things can be true at the same time, but I'd be willing to bet lunch that, in a different political climate, the show would continue for a few more years and CBS would look for creative ways to generate revenue from and for it.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of that. These kinds of corporate decisions aren't made in a day. They've been thinking about it for a while. A lot of people had to sign off on it. Colbert has likely been aware of it as well. He may not have expected the way it happened.
 
crainbebo said:
Local stations can cash in the extra $$$ from an hour of local news at 11PM. In fact, KIRO 7 Seattle has done that for several years on Sunday nights. Head honchos at WCBS, WBBM, KTVT, and others could do the exact same thing.
Click to expand...
The "head honchos" at those O&Os get their marching orders from Corporate. If it makes financial sense, then it will happen at all of the O&Os. That has little bearing in what the affiliates have done, are doing now or will do in the future.
 
TVCOOL said:
Broadcast TV isn't dying in fact it's getting stronger due to cord cutting. And for the CBS TV stations reruns, paid programs or late night movies would get higher ratings than Colbert.
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The ratings disagree. Colbert had the highest rating late night show. And those ratings were down from 10 years ago. OTA is slowly dying off. Cable is dropping faster. “Old media” is just that, it’s near the end.
 
Don CT said:
“Old media” is just that, it’s near the end.
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The problem is it's not being replaced by any one thing, but the audience is being spread out over many different things. Some of them still watch broadcast TV, just not as much. All this is similar to what's happening to radio. People still listen to broadcast radio. Just not as much and not as often. They haven't all gone to any one place. Just disbursed over many different places. Advertising is based on attracting a mass audience, and there's not much media that still does.
 
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