It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, becomes of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
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Late Show ending May 2026
- Thread starter Don CT
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My expectation is it will be sold. Most of the CBS real estate has already been sold. Black Rock (51W52nd street) Television City in LA, and a few other sites. I believe it's been designated an historic site, so it can't be demolished.
I never watched Colbert, not more than 10-15 seconds at a time anyway. Never found him interesting, perceptive or funny. I did however stumble on a post by Keith Olbermann today which gives another perspective of Colbert and am passing it along in the interest of full disclosure. And please don't comment on Olbermann himself. I am acutely aware of how caustic he can be.
Go to 15:50 of this blog if you don't want to hear Keith's non-Colbert rantings:
Go to 15:50 of this blog if you don't want to hear Keith's non-Colbert rantings:
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
But it also is not related to the discussion, which is about late night broadcast talk shows.
Maybe ABC. I can't imagine a Colbert viewer becoming a Fallon fan. I would say any Colbert viewers who are not already watching The Daily Show on Comedy Central will probably try that (assuming Paramount hasn't cancelled it), and Jimmy Kimmel, while a different flavor (it's a very L.A. show), is in the same part of the spectrum politically. Seth Meyers, too, though he airs an hour later.
Speaking of which, has anyone seen what the breakdown for these shows are in terms of live vs. live+1, live+3, etc?
Yes, but it was a completely different world.
Johnny Carson (host from 1962-1992) averaged about 10 million viewers a night over those 30 years---during the 1970s, it was 17 million a night---and he hit some insane highs for late night---45 million people tuned in to watch Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicki on the Tonight Show. When Carson did his final show in May of 1992, he broke that record---55 million tuned in.
Now, Colbert is number one in the timeslot with 2.4 million. That's not sudden. Viewing in the timeslot has eroded over the 33 years since Carson retired, and habits have changed. Late night shows used to benefit from huge 11 pm local news audiences---watch the news, catch the monologue and the first guest, then go to bed.
That's not how American adults 18-49 live anymore.
Oh....well, it was just part of a broader discussion on different hosts in the late night sphere in general (think someone brought up Kimmel.) But yes, maybe he is more off the grid than some others (I think Stewart falls in closer to the broadcast ones, despite being basic cable, though.) But yeah, guess you're right (regardless of how bad I want Maher to just go away.)
Here is an interesting analysis of late night talk shows, including Fox News and "Gutfeld!" Here Are Final Late Night Ratings for Q2 2025 - LateNighter
While Fox News is not a traditional network, Gutfeld! has been positioned as competition for the CBS, ABC and NBC offerings.
Totally agree. Apart from Paramount Studios in Hollywood, I don't think Skydance is interested in real estate.
It's a designated New York City landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
I was surprised to learn, fairly recently, that CBS' use of the Sullivan dates back to 1936. A lot of radio shows were performed there.
It was 1950 when CBS retrofitted it for television. And it was then known as CBS Studio 50. CBS didn't actually buy it until 1993, when it needed a home for David Letterman. Everything CBS did there over 57 years to that point had been under various leases.
I was also surprised to learn that unlike Letterman and Colbert, Ed Sullivan did not have exclusive use of the theater. Sullivan's show was Sunday nights and during the week, game shows like What's My Line, To Tell The Truth and Password all shot at the Sullivan, as did Merv Griffin's short-lived (1969-72) late night show that was CBS' first attempt to compete with Johnny Carson.
When CBS cancelled The Ed Sullivan Show in 1971, game show production had largely moved to the West Coast and bookings became less frequent.
Dick Clark's $10,000 Pyramid was shot at the Ed Sullivan Theater beginning in 1973.
CBS' lease came up in 1976, and it didn't have anything to put there, so its direct involvement ended until they bought it for Letterman.
In the 70s and 80s, it was TeleTape Studios, and a grab bag of shows were shot there---including the sitcom Kate & Allie.
He's on at 10 p.m. though while the others are 11:35.
So? It is the same format. And it is on as early as 7 PM PST.
I'm going off memory here, but seems to me CBS originated its morning news program from there during covid.
Here's a story on the subject:
‘CBS This Morning’ To Move To Ed Sullivan Theater As Coronavirus Precaution
CBS This Morning will start originating from 'The Late Show's Ed Sullivan Theater as the network tries to diversify locations of its productions.
deadline.com
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Purely anecdotal, based entirely on my personal experience: When Kimmel is on himself and live (so excluding reruns on days off for holidays, reruns for weeks off, and his current annual vacation) I tend to TiVo the whole week and then watch all the monologues at once, on Saturday afternoon.
It was the Hammerstein Theatre when it was built.
The New York Times has come up with some more of the financial details (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/...e_code=1.XU8.Q5f8.Q1gcw8Q9lGeF&smid=url-share
While consistent with some other reporting, I wonder if the quoted "two people familiar with the finances" were trotted out to manage the backlash. No doubt CBS expected some adverse reactions but, it seems, not to this extent. The timing is exceptionally poor in a time when everything seems to have become politicized, and CBS already lost credibility with the 60 Minutes settlement. They left themselves no room to maneuver.
While consistent with some other reporting, I wonder if the quoted "two people familiar with the finances" were trotted out to manage the backlash. No doubt CBS expected some adverse reactions but, it seems, not to this extent. The timing is exceptionally poor in a time when everything seems to have become politicized, and CBS already lost credibility with the 60 Minutes settlement. They left themselves no room to maneuver.
Well, nobody can say you didn't try.
Make the announcement in September at the start of the fall season. Not a Thursday night taping in July.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
What's done is done. Second guessing the timing adds nothing to the discussion.
Okay. I'll confess to never having watched Gutfeld. I'm familiar with him because I saw The Five.
So..deep breath...I'm watching now. Last night's show. And I'll just kinda live blog.
What passes for a monologue is Greg sitting in a chair telling a string of "jokes". Here's one from last night:
The closest thing to a topical, non-political joke was about a study that shows that psilocybin mushrooms can extend the lifespan of rodents. Greg's punchline:
That was the capper of a three-minute monologue. And that was pretty much the tone throughout.
After that three-minutes monologue, Greg spends five minutes setting up a topic, peppering it with punch lines, and then it's into a five-person panel discussion where they all agree, repeatedly, that Democrats and the mainstream media are stupid.
A spot break, and then the panel does six minutes taking shots at a CBS News reporter who says he has PTSD from the experience of enraged Trump supporters who appeared ready to attack the media at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where there was an assassination attempt on Trump.
Another spot break, and then all five spend seven minutes dissecting the tech CEO caught with his employee at the Coldplay concert. Greg's take is that if the guy hadn't ducked when he realized the camera was on him, no one would have noticed:
Another spot break and then six minutes on Gavin Newsom...but I have no idea what it was about because my viewer takes two seconds of it and then launches a new set of six commercials. It's happened four times. Enough.
I think I get the idea.
As a point of reference, last night's Colbert monologue:
That was followed by a two-part interview with Senator Adam Schiff:
An interview with actor Anthony Corrigan ("Superman"):
Actor Joaquin Phoenix takes "The Colbert Questionert":
And to close the show, singer Noah Cyrus peforms:
- YouTube
This is NOT the same format. What the two shows have in common is that they talk politics, they're on TV and they're hosted by carbon-based life forms.
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I may have mentioned it, but I watch Daily Show and Seth the following evening via DVR. I'm in bed by 10 most nights.
Thank you for using a gift article from your subscription @Mark Roberts !
They told Colbert Wednesday and Shari Redstone Thursday? I think we're gonna need polygraphs.
That would be smart of them, really, and I don't have an objection as long as the facts are correct. If $220 million in late night ad revenue is being split between four shows (Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon and Meyers), that's nowhere near enough---not if Colbert and Fallon cost $100 million each to produce.
Fallon's comment at the end of the article says it all: "I really thought I'd ride this out with him for years to come".
I think everyone (Stephen, the two Jimmys and Seth) knew they were not likely to have successors, but Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel probably thought they'd have three to five years. I think Seth has heard the ticking clock since last year when he was forced to let the 8G Band go.
Which is astonishing, considering how much heat they got over the 60 Minutes settlement.
Ultimately, I don't think it will matter. The current leadership of Paramount is on the way out the door, and I agree with @TheBigA ---the Ellisons are very likely to sell CBS and all the linear assets to focus on Paramount and Paramount+. A damaged/ruined legacy probably isn't going to cost them a lot of sleep.
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