The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Ending May 21, CBS Retiring Late-Night Franchise

[Dude111]

Ya really.. Just more political trash you can hear on the radio!!

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Stephen Colbert should revive his The Colbert Report alter ego after he leaves The Late Show.

Colbert is unlikely to do it. But as Bill Carter writes, if ever a time called for a revival of 'The Colbert Report,' it's now.

[Dude111]

Yes it would be g00d!

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Paul Shaffer thinks Stephen Colbert's cancelation is a sign of late-night's death

"Shocking. Absolutely shocking," Shaffer, David Letterman's former Late Show bandleader, tells EW of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's cancelation. He added: "I wouldn't be surprised if those doom-sayers that are saying it signifies the end of the Late-Show-type-of-thing, you know, late night television, it's over," he says. "People will watch clips on their computers, and it all makes sense to me. I'm glad that I was in and out of there while the getting was good."

Stephen Colbert celebrates his 10-year anniversary Late Show anniversary by mocking his cancelation with Julianne Moore

Colbert kicked off his Late Show anniversary episode with a cold open that featured him waking up from a dream with Moore next to him in bed. “I dreamt that I hosted a network talk show for 10 years,” Colbert said. “That’s a long time,” Moore acknowledged, to which Colbert dryly quipped back, “I thought it would be longer.” Moore explained that it must’ve been a dream because no one watches late-night television anymore. “That’s just the thing! People did watch this one!" Colbert responded. "In fact, tonight we were supposed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show!” ALSO: Stephen Colbert lookalike contest outside the Ed Sullivan Theater transforms into a protest to save The Late Show.

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Byron Allen Is Lobbying for Stephen Colbert’s CBS Late Night Time Slot: ‘My Hand Is Already Up’

Byron Allen got his first big break at age 18 in 1979 as a standup comedian on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” More than 45 years later, Allen is now a media mogul: But he’s still got his eyes on a late night prize.

Interviewed on stage Wednesday during New York’s Advertising Week event, Allen said he’s pitching hard to land the 11:35 p.m. time slot on CBS next year after “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ends its run. (In July, CBS announced it would cancel “The Late Show” after this current season, calling it a “financial decision.”)

“If they’re looking for a show, my hand is already up,” he told moderator Bill Carter. “50 years, I’ve been waiting for this moment. Definitely, I’m going for it.”

Allen’s “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” currently airs on CBS at 12:35 a.m., in the timeslot most recently held by “After Midnight” (and before that, “The Late Late Show With James Corden”). It’s a low-risk endeavor for the network, since Allen pays CBS for the hour as a time buy and then sells the advertising spots himself.

“I’m investing millions and millions of dollars to prove myself at 12:35,” he said. “I am winning the time period. If numbers matter, then we’re already winning.” (Because it’s a time buy, ratings for “Comics Unleashed” are not immediately available, so Variety has not yet been able to confirm that stat or which measurement he might be referring to.)

CBS has not yet revealed its plans for the late night slot once Colbert’s show ends next May. Options include returning to drama reruns (“Crimetime After Primetime”), which is what CBS ran before “Late Show With David Letterman” premiered in 1993. The network could also expand local news, giving affiliates an extra half hour and perhaps plugging in reruns at midnight. Or, CBS could take Allen up on his offer and shift “Comics Unleashed” down to 11:35 or to midnight (if the network still opts to go with an hour-long local news slot at 11 p.m.).

Currently, “Comics Unleashed” airs as two half-hour episodes nightly: The first 30 minutes is a new episode, while the second episode is an older episode from the series’ library. “Comics Unleashed” originally shot around 233 episodes between 2006 and 2016 as a syndicated series before resuming production on new episodes for the 2025-2026 TV season on CBS.

After “The Late Late Show With James Corden” wrapped in 2023, Allen pitched the “Comics Unleashed” time buy as a stopgap for CBS in the 12:35 slot until the Eye’s replacement series, “After Midnight,” was ready to premiere in January 2024.

“My whole thing was, ‘hey, we have a big opportunity here,'” Allen said. His pitch to CBS: “‘Why would you spend $35 million on a television show at that hour? Let me provide you the show, and I will happily produce the show, and you can save that 35, 40 million, whatever it is, and put it elsewhere.’ So CBS said, ‘this makes it makes sense.’ We did a 19 week test in fall 2023. It did extremely well.”

When “After Midnight” host Taylor Tomlinson decided to depart in early 2025, CBS canceled the show all together. That’s when Allen once again took over the 12:35 slot.

“I said, ‘look, mathematically, you’ll never beat the show.’ At that point, we’d done about 260 episodes, which means 620 comedians have come through the show. I have 620 of the greatest comedy writers on planet Earth today. They’ve written the material. They performed it everywhere. They’ve perfected it. They come on our show. We shoot the show for close to an hour, and we cut it down to 22 minutes. Day one, I’ve always said the show has to be evergreen. That’s how I was able to put it on. No topical humor, no political humor. nothing. I don’t want anything that’s racist, sexist, anti semitic, homophobic, I don’t want to hear any of that… we have enormous support from the advertising community.”

Comedian-turned-mogul Allen launched his Allen Media Group 30 years ago, focusing first on syndicated fare, and then expanding into media outlets. He now owns a chain of TV stations (which is now in the process of divesting), numerous lifestyle channels, the Weather Channel and digital outlets including The Grio and HBCU Go.

[opus]

Out of curiosity, if Paramount can scrape together a $108 billion Warner Bros bid, how can they cry poverty over one late night talk show?

[opus]

I see no one has an explanation. Mostly because it makes no sense.

[TJ]

Originally Posted by opus

Out of curiosity, if Paramount can scrape together a $108 billion Warner Bros bid, how can they cry poverty over one late night talk show?

Originally Posted by opus

I see no one has an explanation. Mostly because it makes no sense.

It doesn't make any sense. There's no way the show was losing $40 million a year if you include the ad revenue from streaming on YouTube/Paramount+ and the affiliate fees.

Stephen Colbert is making $15 million a year. Reportedly the show employs 200 people. I don't know how many of those are full time.
How does the show cost $100 million a year to produce?

I think the new owners had no intention of keeping the show on the air even if it was hugely profitable.

ChatGPT is skeptical of the reported losses.

Short answer: There are credible reports that CBS was losing around $40 million per year on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but the figure isn’t independently verified, and some media figures (like Jimmy Kimmel) say the claim is exaggerated or misleading.

Here’s what’s going on:

�� Reported Losses

Several news outlets and media reporters (citing sources at CBS/Paramount) said the show was losing roughly $40 million – and perhaps up to $50 million – a year before its 2025 cancellation.

Those reports suggested the show had a budget north of $100 million a season, and with declining ad revenue, it wasn’t making enough back to justify the cost.

�� What CBS Actually Said

CBS officially said cancelling the show was a “purely financial decision” amid a tough advertising and late-night economics environment, but the network didn’t publicly confirm specific loss figures.

�� Skepticism & Context

Some industry figures, including fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, have publicly dismissed the idea that Colbert’s show was truly losing $40 million annually, calling that number “nonsensical” because it doesn’t fully account for revenue sources like affiliate fees and streaming performance.

Analysts note that late-night TV overall has been struggling with lower advertising revenue and fragmented audiences, which makes profit calculations more complicated than in the past.

�� Bottom Line

It was widely reported in mid-2025 that the show was losing tens of millions each year and that this was part of CBS’s rationale for cancelling it.

But there’s no public accounting from CBS with exact audited figures, and industry insiders argue the real financial picture might not be as simple as “losing $40 million a year” in a vacuum.

[JamesG]

Stephen Colbert Reveals "The Late Show" End Date
by Peter White
January 27, 2026


The Stephen Colbert-hosted late-night show will end on Thursday, May 21, Deadline has confirmed.

Colbert revealed the news during an appearance on rival talker "Late Night with Seth Meyers", which is set to air tonight (January 27) on NBC, per LateNighter.

https://deadline.com/2026/01/the-lat...te-1236698681/

[Edward216]

I say good riddance.

Ed.

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Stephen Colbert slams CBS statement denying banning James Talarico interview from airing: “Every word of my script last night was approved by CBS lawyers”

On his February 17, 2026, show, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert strongly criticized a statement from CBS that denied banning an interview with Texas Democratic State Representative James Talarico, calling the network’s claim "crap". Colbert asserted that CBS lawyers directly intervened to stop the interview from airing on TV due to FCC "equal-time" rules and, in a sharp rebuke, noted that his monologue addressing the situation had been pre-approved by those same lawyers.

• FCC chair Brendan Carr calls Stephen Colbert’s James Talarico clash with CBS a “hoax” as he confirms probe of The View.

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Stephen Colbert is a “dead man walking”: That’s why he could clash with CBS in shining a light on FCC’s new “equal time” mandate.

Based on reports from February 2026, Stephen Colbert is in his final months as host of The Late Show—with his contract set to expire in May 2026 and the show scheduled to end. Because he is essentially a "dead man walking" (a lame-duck host) after CBS announced the show's cancellation in July 2025, he has taken an combative approach toward network management regarding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) "equal time" mandate.

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Stephen Colbert’s monthslong farewell has become “outsized and a bit dramatic."

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CBS sells Byron Allen the 11:35 p.m. timeslot Stephen Colbert is exiting

CBS has announced a deal to sell its 11:35 p.m. ET late-night timeslot, formerly occupied by Stephen Colbert's The Late Show, to entertainment mogul Byron Allen.

Starting May 22, 2026, the hour-long slot immediately following the local news will feature back-to-back episodes of Allen’s comedy series, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.

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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert shifts into its endgame with May 21 finale fast approaching

Counting this week, Stephen Colbert has six weeks of new shows left on CBS, plus a weeklong hiatus later this month. “To that end, Colbert’s guest list is starting to look less like a typical booking grid and more like a sendoff,” says LateNighter’s Jed Rosenzweig, adding: “Final runs for long-running late-night shows have a history of turning into something bigger—part celebration, part reunion, part victory lap—as seen in the closing stretches of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien, when guest lists doubled as homecomings.” ALSO: Stephen Colbert reacts to facing off against Heated Rivalry in two Webby Awards categories.