Holy shit. CBS is cancelling Steven Colbert show.

[Swede]

Just now on CNN.

[Stargleamer]

1. Reeks of further capitulation n/t

[LymphocyteLover]

68. that's my first thought

[Initech]

87. Also reeks of Trump and TPUSA meddling.

[viva la]

2. Part of the Trump payoff?

Pretty soon they're going to shut down the news department.

[UTUSN]

83. "news department" - ya beat me to it.

[senseandsensibility]

3. Disgraceful

[Hassler]

4. Paramount really wants Taco's help

[ananda]

75. So glad I never subscribed.

This is a sad day.

[RoeVWade]

5. Which company do I need to boycott?

nt*

[SouthBayDem]

18. Late night TV is becoming obsolete

due to streaming and competition from the Internet. It’s not like the old days when Leno or Letterman was the only place a movie star or singer could get a national platform.

[dem4decades]

30. Truth is becoming obsolete, this has nothing to do with late night.

[newdeal2]

6. Late night TV is dead for the most part

But this reeks as a favor to Trump.

I hope Colbert finds a new home somewhere else maybe streaming.

[Dave says]

22. Colbert is a powerhouse talent

He’ll do just fine wherever he lands, if he chooses to work.

[cadoman]

57. ratings were strong though, looks like the show still dominated its time slot last quarter

https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/late-night-tv-ratings-q2-2025/

https://www.tvinsider.com/1202434/late-night-ratings-2025-gutfeld-kimmel-colbert-fallon/

What are they going to put there in its place?

[Lucky Luciano]

63. Ad revenue was still down 50%.

[newdeal2]

65. Nothing. Reruns or something cheaper like news probably

This isn’t the first instance of cost cutting either. The sets have gotten cheaper, the bands have disappeared, only four nights a week.

It sucks because I enjoy the late night format and I think it’s still relevant, but I guess I’m outdated.

[DonCoquixote]

66. soemoen right wing and stupid so that people wotn have to think

I smell Joe Rogan

[IcyPeas]

7. Jimmy Kimmel next??

This is infuriating

[FuzzyRabbit]

74. Probably.

Just what I was thinking.

[yorkster]

77. Colbert and Kimmel are the 2 best imho.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. CBS is ending 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' next year

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/cbs-cancels-stephen-colbert

CBS is ending ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ next year

By Brian Stelter and Dan Heching, CNN
Updated 7:42 PM EDT, Thu July 17, 2025

CNN — In a shocking move, CBS is ending “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year, potentially exiting the late-night television business altogether.

The cancellation will take effect in May 2026, the normal end of the broadcast TV season, the network said.

The Thursday night announcement came just two weeks after the parent company of CBS, Paramount, settled a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News.

The settlement – and Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media – spurred speculation about Colbert’s future at CBS. Colbert, after all, is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television.

…

[OKIsItJustMe]

15. CBS: Show Feedback

https://www.cbs.com/showfeedback/

[dflprincess]

61. Thank you!

[OKIsItJustMe]

92. My Pleasure Highness!

[applegrove]

9. That is so too bad.

[TnDem]

10. Podcasts

Podcasts have beaten late night TV to death in the last five years.

Fortune Magazine stated last last year that Colbert's show had dropped 30% during this time...It must have dropped even more.

[malaise]

11. Effective May 2026

Fuck CBS

[Xavier Breath]

12. The way Kimmel roasts him every night I wonder how much longer he'll be employed.

[Wuddles440]

47. Gone by this time...

next year, if not sooner. No one will be permitted to criticize or mock the Orange Felon King.

[bdamomma]

78. The felon

can fuck off, so weak, such a coward.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

13. This is pure bullshit

Colbert will find another home

[EmmaLee E]

91. See BS

Is what I now call that that network.

[electric_blue68]

14. WHAT?!!! #%&#$$*#+$ !!! Shame on CBS!

[B.See]

16. Cowardly Broadcasting Station.

Nothing else much to watch the there anyway.

[tinrobot]

17. CBS/Viacom is being acquired by Skydance Media

It is controlled by David Ellison, son of mega-billionaire and conservative-leaning Larry Ellison.

But before you draw conclusions, David Ellison gave over $900K to Biden in the '24 campaign.

Variety reports that Viacom claims it is purely a financial decision. And that is also a fair point - late night TV and broadcast in general are on the way out.

Lots of data points, probably more complex than just "appeasement"

[newdeal2]

19. It is post merger cost cutting

They will need to squeeze every dollar to make a profit off of this deal.

Colbert is an unfortunate casualty. They already cut the show after him (After Midnight) so they will have no late night presence vs NBC or ABC.

Since they own Comedy Central, I wonder if they’ll cut the Daily Show next.

[tinrobot]

23. Totally agree, it is mostly cost cutting.

As for Comedy Central, I get the feeling that South Park might get the axe first. The show has already been taken off of Paramount Plus due to a contract dispute. The contract expires soon and negotiations are not going well.

[Diraven]

26. They just gave Trump a $15 million bribe

To settle a completely bogus lawsuit. And now they need to cut costs. Sure.

[newdeal2]

28. That was a bribe

To get the merger approved so that Shari Redstone could cash out.

[senseandsensibility]

20. His ratings are killing it

He is the highest rated program in late night television according to Brian Seltzer (sp) on CNN.

[TnDem]

31. That's like

The floatiest turd in the pool...It means nothing now because all the rating suck in comparison to the place they used to hold before podcasts became mainstream..

All of late night talk has been hemorrhaging for years now... The days of Johnny Carson, Leno and Letterman having MASSIVE shares of folk's free time is like a buggy whip store at the Indy 500.

[cadoman]

60. but if they're already dominating the time slot where he is, what do they hope to accomplish by replacing him?

Not the greatest analogy as I'm not sure what benefit a floating turd is, but what's the benefit of replacing him unless the production costs of the show were egregious?

Aren't hosted shows some of the most affordable programming around? My family and I watch regularly.

[TnDem]

62. That's called "anecdotal"

Just because your family "watch regularly", the next 20 people are streaming Theo Von or Rogan or others.

Rigid, late night TV commentary is dying and has been dying for many years. Nobody sits and waits on a late night talk show host discuss whatever THEY like, when a viewer can simply go to YouTube and watch whatever subject interests them, and watch whenever they want,

Since the myriad of podcasters have grown, late night TV has shrunk to a ghost of its former self.

[cadoman]

69. I think we agree on the basic facts, but then why cancel the best selling show on your depreciating asset?

They already bid for the spectrum. How does it help them to put a lesser performing show in its place?

[TnDem]

72. The network

Could probably replace him with re-runs of The Price is Right and still break even...There are MANY podcasts that probably quadruple his viewership and are done at a fraction of the cost.

Shows like Colbert or Gutfeld have a limited audience to begin with because nobody is viewed as straight-up non-partisan comedy anymore...Carson cut both ways. He made jokes about Nixon, Carter and Reagan and you never knew where he stood because his jokes were just that...jokes.

People like Colbert and Gutfeld are partisan from the minute they open their mouth till the minute they close it. People get sick of that same schtick night after night, unless they like living in an echo chamber..

[Fiendish Thingy]

38. That's not true

Sadly, Greg Gutfield’s late night show on FOX is the highest rated.

Colbert might be the highest rated broadcast (excluding cable) late night show.

[Celerity]

42. no 'i'

[Norbert]

21. So what is the CBS Braintrust going to replace Colbert with...

Gutfield?

[jls4561]

25. The Lara Trump show. Earplug sales will be through the roof.

Colbert will land on his feet. I can’t wait for his first monologue after he changes venues.

[tinrobot]

27. They'll probably replace it with nothing.

Just like when old time radio shows were canceled in the 1950's.

Similarly, broadcast TV is dying. Viacom needs to put their dollars into streaming.

[Diraven]

29. I would not be surprised

If they give some Trump family member a show as part of the "settlement". I mean they already tried to extort WB into giving Don Jr. a reality show.

[Celerity]

41. no 'i'

[Raven123]

24. I removed CBS from my channel list when they caved to Trump.

[bucolic_frolic]

32. Ed Sullivan Theatre /nt

[Snarkoleptic]

33. They caved on the 60-minutes interview w/ Kamala Harris, which

set them up for all sorts of additional demands.
This is exactly why you don't give bullies their 'ask'.

[twodogsbarking]

34. The 700 Club will now fill the time slot.

[Wonder Why]

51. Nah! Rush Limbaugh. He should be moldy enough by now to start looking like President El Chapo.

[dem4decades]

35. Katy Tur's husband works for CBS, maybe that's why she sucks.

[ancianita]

36. Yep. He criticized Big Corporate.

He can get another contract with a more amenable corporate entity. It's CBS's loss because they care more about this fascist dictator affecting their bottom line than they do their audience or real "king's jester" comedy.

[gab13by13]

56. Yup, you get it,

Colbert criticized CBS for caving to Krasnov so it fired him.

[Mystery To Me]

37. Big bummer.

Colbert helps keep me sane.

[Wuddles440]

49. Same!!!!

[Grim Chieftain]

39. Boycott CBS and Paramount

Freedom of thought is being killed in this country. The thought police must be stopped.

[BidenRocks]

40. Oh NBC!

Time to dump Fallon and put Colbert in there.

If they want to kill the #1 show in late night, let them!

[milestogo]

43. Why?

[Marie Marie]

44. Hmmmm, is The Daily Show still looking for a host for Tues Wed Thurs??

Would love to see Jon and Stephen reunited to take on Trump. That would be a ratings booster.

[Blue Owl]

45. CBS's ratings will tank now

Way to shoot yourselves in the foot, CBS!

[3auld6phart]

46. What

The hell. No words to describe my disappointment

[OKIsItJustMe]

48. Thomas Jefferson

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

-Thomas Jefferson, 1787

[kimbutgar]

50. This is so bullshit

We need to stop watching CBS.

Even though I like Matloxk and Ellsberg and ghosts they are not going to be watched in my household anymore.

[no_hypocrisy]

52. C'mon! This was always part of the CBS-Trump "settlement".

[Jacoby365]

53. Colbert criticized the company he works for just two days ago.

He even mentioned a bribe to Trump. Starting at the two minute mark.

?si=0cguUe7biVwBPuvR

[oasis]

90. Thanks for posting Video. Kick

[sinkingfeeling]

54. Disgraceful. Part of Paramount's 'settlement'?

[Aussie105]

55. Stopped watching the show a while ago - yes, it does get aired here in Australia.

Early on the show poked fun at the incompetency of the current administration, expecting 'normality' to be restored soon.

Didn't, hasn't happened.

Really hard to put a positive and comedic spin on the state of things in America currently, and the show was struggling to do just that.
Like telling an inappropriate joke at a funeral, really.

[superpatriotman]

58. That leaves Survivor and Big Brother

Both of which I can live without.

[Bristlecone]

59. Does he have good ratings?

I watch little to no network tv, and have never watched the show since David Letterman left. And even then I wasn’t a regular viewer.


And I like Seth Meyers, but also have never watched a minute of his show.

[bagimin]

64. This country continues

to slip away.

[3auld6phart]

67. Hopefully

Steven
Phe had a contract and can Sue the chicken shit cowards.

[Renew Deal]

70. That's terrible news

It was a good show and he was great.

[surfered]

71. Unbelievable. Replacing him with Ted Nugent?

[Catherine Vincent]

73. Damn

I was hating on CBS before for canceling one of my shows and now this?

[Jirel]

76. Sounds like someone got freed up...

… to do The Daily Show.

[Old Crank]

79. He said that was possible

During his monolog the other day.

[Emile]

80. I like his show.

[Warpy]

81. Can't wait to see the replacement

Note to CBS: right wing "comedians" just aren't funny and one will crash and burn faster than poor Katie Couric did on the nightly news when she got saddled with an AM style chatty format and a bunch of nasty right wing guests.

[JoseBalow]

82. I'm sure he'll land on his feet, at a better place

[rickyhall]

84. Cancel CBS I won't miss it.

[thesquanderer]

85. 2 months ago, I posted, "If CBS dumps Colbert, we'll know it's all over!"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143462666#post4

[Totally Tunsie]

86. Well, that just sucks.

So I'd guess there's no reason for Stephen to hold back now, is there?

Fasten your seatbelts, Ladies and Gentlemen!

[moondust]

88. Crazy.

Although I have often wondered how Colbert got along with the management of a network that I felt moved pretty far to the right back in the 2000s or earlier. Maybe partly because of this:

~
A study conducted in 2003 by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) tracking the frequencies of pro-war and antiwar commentators on the major networks found that pro-war views were overwhelmingly more frequent. The FAIR study found that the two networks notably least likely to present critical commentary were Fox and CBS.
~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_the_Iraq_War

Steve needs to find a new gig. I'm sure he could retire if he wanted to but I hope he doesn't.

[hunter]

89. Their coverage of the Iraq War was disgusting.

That's when I quit television news and opinion entirely.

I quit "traditional" advertising supported television in January, 2012.

Traditional television created Trump. I don't think it can be forgiven for that.