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

[opus]

I’m pretty stunned by this one…


>>>In a shocking move, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is ending in May 2026.

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season. <<<


https://deadline.com/2025/07/the-lat...bs-1236461787/

[TMC]

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/cbs...on-1236464356/

By Brian Steinberg

TV’s ongoing problems with late night have come for Stephen Colbert, with CBS announcing Thursday that it plans to end his “Late Show” after the next TV season, citing a “financial decision.”

The decision — which ends years of original late-night programming at CBS that started when the network lured David Letterman from NBC in 1993 — comes as the economics of wee-hours TV have begun to accelerate, with media companies growing wary of the high price tags involved in producing the shows while the young viewers they try to attract watch more of them via digital video.

“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise” in May of 2026,” CBS executives said in a statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television. This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

Colbert, who was informed of the network’s decision Wednesday evening, according to a person familiar with the matter, told the audience at the taping for Thursday’s broadcast about the matter.

There has been growing speculation that both Colbert and Jon Stewart, who hosts one broadcast of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” each week could be under growing scrutiny from executives at Skydance Media, which is slated to acquire Paramount Global, the parent of both CBS and Comedy Central. David Ellison, who leads Skydance, has projected an image of being intrigued by the politics espoused by President Donald Trump, who Colbert and Stewart routinely skewer in monologues and commentary.

CBS has already been winding down its activity around midnight. The network recently cancelled “After Midnight,” a companion program that aired after “Late Show” and featured comedian Taylor Tomlinson. She decided to leave to focus on her own stand-up shows, even though CBS had sought a third season of the show.

More to come….

A post shared by on Jan 01, 2022 at 12:00pm PDT

[TJ]

I tried watching him a few times, but I just don't find him very entertaining. He's not as funny as David Letterman.

There's no way this was because of purely financial reasons. It wasn't because of the ratings either. Their YouTube channel has almost 10 million subscribers. It seems like most people watch the late night shows online these days.

[opus]

The only way to truly talk about what’s going down is to get political. So we won’t talk about it.

[Babalu]

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cbs-ca...ogram-may-2026

CBS cancels 'The Late Show,' Stephen Colbert to end program in May 2026

CBS will cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in 2026, the network announced Thursday, insisting it’s a "financial decision" and has nothing to do with a looming ownership change.

"'THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT' will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season," CBS said in a statement. "We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire 'THE LATE SHOW' franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television."

CBS said it was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," adding, "It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."

YEAH BABY!!!

He STUNK!

Unfunny bum.

Bye bye!

[sm95fan]

Originally Posted by TJ

I tried watching him a few times, but I just don't find him very entertaining. He's not as funny as David Letterman.

There's no way this was because of purely financial reasons. It wasn't because of the ratings either. Their YouTube channel has almost 10 million subscribers. It seems like most people watch the late night shows online these days.

https://fortune.com/2024/10/25/late-...ience-drop-32/

[Babalu]

Originally Posted by opus

The only way to truly talk about what’s going down is to get political. So we won’t talk about it.

The show doesn't make enough money. It's as simple as that.

I know everyone will want to pretend that CBS is doing this to placate Trump, but Trump will be gone in 3 years.

Johnny Carson had between 15-20 million people watching every night, when we had half the number of people in the country.

10% of the population watched Johnny Carson. This guy has less than 1% of the population and he's the big winner!

That's why the show's being cancelled.

Pretending otherwise doesn't make it true.

[stevea]

'THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT' will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season," CBS said in a statement. "We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire 'THE LATE SHOW' franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television."

Historic? Greats?

I guess we're used to overblown rhetoric, but this is ridiculous. Carson - historic, great. Colbert? Get real.

All these late night shows probably won't make it with 2 million or fewer viewers. So I look for more of these cancellations.

[Babalu]

Originally Posted by stevea

'THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT' will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season," CBS said in a statement. "We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire 'THE LATE SHOW' franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television."

Historic? Greats?

I guess we're used to overblown rhetoric, but this is ridiculous. Carson - historic, great. Colbert? Get real.

All these late night shows probably won't make it with 2 million or fewer viewers. So I look for more of these cancellations.

Exactly. He was neither "historic" nor "great".

2 million viewers out of 330 million people.

What a joke.

[TMC]

Stephen Colbert's Cancellation Sounds A Terrifying Death Toll For Late Night TV

The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert sends a chilling message to the rest of late night, financially and politically.

• It's hard to believe CBS canceling Stephen Colbert’s Late Show is "purely a financial decision"
  
• It’s hard to shake the feeling that the late-night talk show format is dying a slow death
  
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's cancelation could lead to its first-ever Emmy win
  
• Trump celebrates Stephen Colbert's cancelation

[Charles Knox]

Originally Posted by TMC

Stephen Colbert's Cancellation Sounds A Terrifying Death Toll For Late Night TV

The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert sends a chilling message to the rest of late night, financially and politically.

• It's hard to believe CBS canceling Stephen Colbert’s Late Show is "purely a financial decision"
  
• It’s hard to shake the feeling that the late-night talk show format is dying a slow death
  
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's cancelation could lead to its first-ever Emmy win
  
• Trump celebrates Stephen Colbert's cancelation

Bet Kate Middleton is also having a nice chuckle about the jerk's misfortune.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/614663-wha...kate-middleton

[Babalu]

https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/media/...inancial-loss/

CBS canned ‘The Late Show’ over tens of millions in financial losses annually — not Stephen Colbert’s politics: sources

CBS brass say they pulled the plug on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” because of its punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year — and claim politics had nothing to do with it, The Post has learned.

The 61-year-old host got canned just days after he took a dig at the Tiffany Network over its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris as the network’s parent Paramount negotiates with the Trump administration regulatory approval for its $8 billion sale to independent studio Skydance.

But scathing jokes at the expense of CBS brass wasn’t the problem, according to insiders.

Instead, the network’s bosses could no longer stomach the fact that Colbert has been plagued with an increasingly dire shortage of advertisers.

That’s despite Colbert’s No, 1 ratings in his time slot and his status as a key face for the Tiffany Network.

In the end, Paramount’s co-CEO George Cheeks decided to kill the show, sources said.

“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” said a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision.

“Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”

Today, there are articles all over the internet about the staggering losses for this show. Even the NY Times wrote a story about it yesterday.

When he ruled late night TV, Johnny Caron was responsible for about 15% of the profits for the entire NBC network. That's amazing. Now this guy Colbert loses $40-$50 million a year. Who wouldn't cancel him? What the Late Show became under him and why he chased viewers away is a disgrace, but it's now a fact. None of the late night network shows are successful because they've chosen not to be. Whenever Johnny Carson was questioned about his political opinions, he would say, "That's not what I'm there for. I'm there to entertain people." Yet that lesson has been lost over time by network executives that sought this type of show out which alienated audiences because it was their own personal preference.

[Duster76]

Anyone trying to make this about anything more than business as usual isn't being real. I wrote about this more than a year ago the Gutfeld format is the way to go. A cost effective structure that reflects the contemporary realities of the business. Colbert has a staff of 106 with Colbert pulling down 15 million, Gutfeld who outdraws Colbert by more than a million has a salary of 7 million and that's for two shows (The Five and Gutfeld). NBC and ABC will be following in short order.

[ge]

I think it was money. The Network can't keep pumping money into a show that is losing money.

People talk like the Network kicked him out the next day. He's going to be on until mid-next year. It's not like they got mad and kicked him out of the building because of what he said about Trump.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by ge

I think it was money. The Network can't keep pumping money into a show that is losing money.

People talk like the Network kicked him out the next day. He's going to be on until mid-next year. It's not like they got mad and kicked him out of the building because of what he said about Trump.

Late Show with Colbert Lost $40 million per year

“Fifteen years ago, a popular late-night show like “The Tonight Show” could earn $100 million a year, the executive said. Recently, though, “The Late Show” has been losing $40 million a year, said a person briefed on the matter. The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2 million last year from $121.1 million in 2018, according to ad tracking firm Guideline. Ratings for Colbert’s show peaked at 3.1 million viewers on average during the 2017-18 season, according to Nielsen data.”