CBS is not replacing Colbert with another host. It is straight up cancelling the Late Show all together.
Is this a reflection of the steady decline of traditional broadcast TV? Or is it something else? CBS did cancel After Midnight, the replacement of the the Late Late Show, but that might have something to do with Taylor Tomlinson not wanting to do it anymore? Not sure.
If this is a trend, are shows like the Tonight Show, Late Night, and other late night talk shows going to end up with the same fate as well?
It’s probably related to the Paramount lawsuit and/or merger. On principle, that’s not a good development. But personally speaking, I never thought ‘The Late Show with Colbert’ was funny and always missed him on ‘The Colbert Report.’ To me, he hasn’t been funny in a decade since TCR was canceled. So I feel mixed about it.
According to the LA Times, Colbert’s show lost viewers each of the past three years, as well as boatloads of cash for Paramount. Very expensive production with a band and super expensive studio to shoot it in. Broadcast television is not in a good place, but Colbert’s YouTube video snippets helped a lot. So, tell me broadcast television is losing to streaming without telling me it’s losing to streaming.
Over at WaPo there have been multiple articles about it today. Their readers are pretty much losing their minds over Colbert’s cancellation. CBS kissing the ring of Trump, soon he will control all media, democracy is on the brink, etc.
Yeah I, too, have to wonder how many of them actually watch appointment tv or just the highlights on yt. With a premium yt account you can watch virtually everything without commercials.
Commercials after 11:30pm are like Ambian to us boomers. More sensible to watch YouTube clips just before or after 4pm supper, when the light’s still strong and you can still find your damn glasses and the remote.
WaPo readers run the gamut, and the opportunities for informed conversation about the US are unusually rich (in the comments section of nearly every online article). There are historians, professionals, academics, current and former Congressional staffers, and regular Joes from every corner of the US who comment there. I’ll probably always be interested in their thoughts, lefties though many, sadly, are.
It’s a good place to talk with Americans about America.
You know, it’s quite humorous - ever notice how Fox News has long been plagued with certain types of commercials that involve ED, gold, cash for gold, “special memorabilia” coins, and other seedy subjects that usually involve some sort of grift or sleaze?
You can tell a lot about an audience, or at the very least how a network views it’s audience, by the commercials it airs.
Did you ever watch it? Did you find it watchable? It was objectively terrible. I have no problem watching shows with a liberal bias if they’re funny, but Colbert’s Late Show stint was anything but.
