Stephen Colbert On Late Show Cancellation: 'If We Can't Be Profitable, No One Can Be' (LateNighter)

[pstokely]

sports deals aren't profitable either

https://latenighter.com/news/stephen-colbert-late-show-cancellation-interview/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=exclusive-jon-stewart-renews-daily-show-deal-through-2026-9322

In a wide-ranging conversation with GQ, Colbert opened up about his show’s impending end and the larger financial headwinds facing late-night television

“I found it very surprising,” Colbert said of CBS’s claim that the show was no longer profitable. “I said, ‘Well, if we can’t be, then no one can be.’ They run the business and I run the show, and far be it for me to tell them how to run their business—but I’ll stick with: I found it very surprising.”

CBS described its move as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night, ” with leaked numbers from the network pegging The Late Show’s losses at roughly $40 million a year. Colbert himself has joked about that figure on air, suggesting it’s exaggerated—but he doesn’t deny that the late-night business model has become increasingly unsustainable.

“Television’s in huge trouble,” he told GQ. “Maybe David Ellison will fix everything,” he added, referring to the new Paramount-Skydance leadership. “No, seriously. Maybe he will. But it’s clear that television is in a lot of transitions… That’s not my end of the business. My end of the business is the jokes.”

[drmeow]

1. I don't trust media executives

to be honest about profitability of anything where they have to pay artists. I'm sure that they play some game like entering broadcast revenue and streaming revenue into separate categories so that only one counts towards the "profitability" of the show. They tried to pull that shit when the writers went on strike. I would only believe what media executives claim after a full independent audit of every single element of their business!

[mopinko]

5. like disney always managed to make blockbuster movie look

like they made no money so they cd screw actors.

[GreatGazoo]

2. Sad to hear that

The majority of YouTube viewing is now done on televisions, recently surpassing phones, and YouTube is paying out billions to content creators. Meaning that broadcast TV will not be the last casualty of the shift -- cable-only entities will be next and cable continues to price itself out of the market. YouTube is going after exclusive live sports, prompting a fight with ESPN.

YouTube via TV set is especially strong in late night when viewers are less mobile.

It’s come a long way since the 19-second “me at the zoo” video was uploaded in April 2005. Now, per a KPMG report released Sept. 23, YouTube is second only to Comcast in terms of annual content spend, inclusive of payments to creators and media companies, paying out as much as Netflix and Paramount combined, $32 billion.
...
Everyone knows late night TV is in trouble. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has been canceled at CBS, while Jimmy Kimmel’s short-lived suspension at ABC brought fresh attention to the struggles of the format. YouTube has slowly, then all at once, become the de facto home for what had been late night, not only for the shows on linear TV, but for an emerging crop of new talent born on the platform.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/youtube-impact-tv-sports-late-night-comedy-shows-1236400353/

[pstokely]

6. Could Colbert do a high budget 4 nights a week show on Youtube?

From a Broadway theater?

[newdeal2]

7. Yes from a technology standpoint

But someone still has to bankroll that operation.

That’s why the podcast business has boomed; pretty cheap to create so anyone can do it.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. And nobody does the jokes better than Stephen Colbert.

[Moostache]

4. The unvarnished truth? The owner can't handle the turth!!!

We live in a world that has allowed generations of owners to pass on their "assets" to their families as cash-generating entities that simply provide wealth to the heirs and money to purchase and exercise power.

The answer to falling profits is SUPPOSED TO BE compete in the free market, improve your offerings (product/service/subscription/etc.), offer MORE value to the consumer and reap the benefits of your ideas/labor/productivity accordingly. That is obviously a massive over-simplification, but the central point is going to remain true: the "PROFITS" are not supposed to be a set % of the GROSS - they are supposed to be the proceeds remaining to the owner AFTER all things like COGS, Depreciation, environemental costs, LABOR, TAXES, etc. have been paid. That is NOT how the owners view the system - they view the system as an enforcement mechanism to ensure their cut - the PROFITS are constant and the pain of the market is NEVER laid at their door - or if it is, it can be emeliorated by buying courts, get out of crime free judges and politicians and essentially ensure taht is more profitable to fuck over the planet and the workers than it is to actually improve in order to make more $$$.

Monopolies, graft, theft, kick backs, bought off pols and judges - its all straight out of Puzo's "The Godfather" 9which is why our asshole current POTUS believes that he IS Don Corelone (when he is actually Fredo at best, if not Paulie with the cannoli on the Causeway).

Any business model that seeks to maximize the owner's cut at the expense of literally EVERYTHING else should be 100% doomed to fail, only in our current oligogarchy-based system it does the exact opposite. Early-21st century capitalism (as practiced around the globe today) is a constant, massive and on-going scam, a wealth-extraction tool for the 0.1% at the expense of the rest of humanity.