\n But on the inside, at CBS, there were several plausible answers to that question. While \u201cThe Late Show\u201d host Stephen Colbert was on his usual mid-summer vacation earlier this month, CBS executives weighed the pros and cons of canceling the unique but unfortunately unprofitable show.\n <\/p>\n
\n The \u201ccons\u201d were obvious, as evidenced by the studio audience\u2019s boos when Colbert announced the cancellation on Thursday night.\n <\/p>\n
\n However, the \u201cpros\u201d ultimately won out because, according to sources close to the network, \u201cThe Late Show\u201d was losing money and there was no apparent path to turning around its financial position.\n <\/p>\n
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\n It was an \u201cagonizing decision,\u201d as the executives admitted in a statement.\n <\/p>\n
\n But CBS insiders insist, even when speaking frankly on condition of anonymity, that the move was financially driven, not politically motivated.\n <\/p>\n
\n Many observers have huge doubts about that, given that Colbert has been an outspoken critic of President Trump.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Writers Guild of America, which represents writers on \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d said Friday that it is concerned the cancellation was a \u201cbribe\u201d to curry favor with the Trump administration. The guild wants the New York state attorney general to launch an investigation.\n <\/p>\n
\n While the political uproar continues, here\u2019s what the data indicates.\n <\/p>\n
\n The bottom has indeed been falling out of the late-night TV business model for several years now. Audience fragmentation and digital competition have led to a decline in ad revenue across the board. One insider described it as \u201ccratering\u201d at CBS.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s because, even though Colbert outrated his competition at 11:35 p.m., the overall audience for late-night has been shrinking.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAd dollars and audiences are moving away from late night shows,\u201d Variety reported \u2014 and that was back in 2023.\n <\/p>\n
\n The financial picture has only gotten gloomier since then. Guideline, an ad data firm, estimates that the networks\u2019 late-night shows earned $439 million in ad revenue in 2018 and only $220 million in 2024 \u2014 a decline of 50 percent.\n <\/p>\n
\n The shows hosted by Colbert and his rivals, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, are inherently expensive to produce, with hundreds of staffers and elaborate studio productions.\n <\/p>\n
\n The shows are also an awkward fit on streaming platforms since they tend to be topical, limiting the shelf life of the content. Colbert\u2019s commentaries and interviews often go viral on social media, but that attention isn\u2019t easily converted into cold, hard cash since CBS doesn\u2019t control the social platforms.\n <\/p>\n
![\"NEW](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/late-show-marquee-gettyimages-487319674.jpg\")
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\u2018The Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u2019 cancelled in what CBS calls ‘a financial decision.\u2019\n <\/p>\n
\u2018The Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u2019 cancelled in what CBS calls ‘a financial decision.\u2019<\/p>\n
02:48 <\/p>\n
\n But couldn\u2019t CBS have explored changes to the cost structure? That\u2019s what the network did later in the evening, in its 12:35 a.m. time slot, in 2023. \u201cThe Late Late Show with James Corden\u201d ended, partly due to the fact that it was no longer making money for CBS, and a cheaper show called \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d was launched in its place.\n <\/p>\n
\n Colbert was an executive producer on both \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d and \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d so he had some visibility into the financial circumstances.\n <\/p>\n
\n But the swiftness of the network\u2019s decision suggests that he wasn\u2019t given much time to suggest cost savings or other alternatives.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s why one person close to Colbert described the show\u2019s retirement, effective in May 2026, as a \u201ccasualty of the merger.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n That merger is CBS parent Paramount\u2019s long-gestating deal with Skydance, a media company controlled by David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison.\n <\/p>\n
\n The elder Ellison is a longtime friend of President Trump and has previously described himself as a Trump supporter. And David Ellison was spotted with the president earlier this year at UFC matches.\n <\/p>\n
\n The pending deal matters for two reasons: One, because companies almost always try to cut costs around the time of a merger; and two, because the deal requires sign-off from the Trump administration.\n <\/p>\n
\n Paramount entered into a settlement agreement with Trump earlier this month to resolve Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the CBS News program \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d The company said it would pay $16 million toward Trump\u2019s future presidential library. Trump suggested at the time that there were other components to the settlement.\n <\/p>\n
\n While there is no evidence that Colbert\u2019s cancellation is connected to the settlement, Democratic senators like Elizabeth Warren are asking questions about the possibility.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAmerica deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,\u201d Warren said in a statement Thursday night.\n <\/p>\n
\n At the very least, CBS executives moved forward with the retirement of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d franchise knowing that the optics would cause all manner of controversy.\n <\/p>\n
\n Trump personally celebrated the cancellation on Friday morning, writing on Truth Social that \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, the Trump administration\u2019s merger review process continues to move forward, albeit slowly. David Ellison was in Washington to meet with FCC chairman Brendan Carr and other FCC officials on Tuesday, according to a government filing by Skydance on Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n The company said Ellison \u201cdiscussed Skydance\u2019s commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS\u2019s editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 From the outside, the idea made no sense at all. Why would a broadcast network cancel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-4047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}