The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to End in May 2026

telcodad

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to End in May 2026, & CBS Will End The Late Show For Good
By Luke Bouma, Cord Cutters News - July 17, 2025
https://cordcuttersnews.com/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-to-end-in-may-2026-cbs-will-end-the-late-show-for-good/

In a stunning announcement that has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry, CBS revealed that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will conclude its historic run in May 2026, at the end of the broadcast season. The decision, described as “purely financial” by network executives, marks the end of a late-night franchise that has been a cornerstone of American television since 1993. CBS also confirmed that the Late Show brand will be retired, with no plans to replace Colbert or continue the series. ….

px_eliezer_

telcodad

Another good thing taken from us by those on the Vader/Voldemort team.

He still made a lot of money for CBS/Paramount even if all these shows are not what they once were.

What will CBS replace it with ??

Old Matlock mud-wrestles with New Matlock ??

Hee-Haw 2026 ??

Petticoat Junction Next Generation (The love lives of the 3 daughters) ??

egeezer

px_eliezer_
That show has been number one in its time slot for decades. In Columbus Ohio before late night talk/variety shows came along, we had Fritz the Night Owl with vintage movies after the 11:00 news. On Fridays he would have old horror and scifi flicks.

Way before that was the national anthem followed by a test pattern.

urbanriot

honestly I have no idea how it last this long, Stephen Colbert was a really stiff host who wasn’t entertaining at all, and certainly not funny.

I have no use for any of the current day American talk show hosts, Jimmy Kimmel is a snake, Jimmy Fallon does those annoying fake laughs, and I have no idea who else is out there. Craig Ferguson was probably the last talk show host that amused me and felt natural, like it wasn’t rehearsed.

Graham Norton is the only talk show I’ll watch and it’s highly entertaining since it’s unscripted and has a random assortment of guests on the couch at the same time, some of which gel in weird ways at times.

Honestly, no one in America has come even close to matching Johnny Carson.

mmmdonuts

telcodad The decision, described as “purely financial” by network executives, marks the end of a late-night franchise that has been a cornerstone of American television since 1993.

The network makes a financial decision and somehow the meanies are to blame.

Astyanax

telcodad The decision, described as “purely financial” by network executives, marks the end of a late-night franchise that has been a cornerstone of American television since 1993. CBS also confirmed that the Late Show brand will be retired, with no plans to replace Colbert or continue the series

Apparently Steve didn’t figure out he basically got a new boss back in January and it’s the same guy he’s been trash talking for a decade now on his show. That doesn’t bode well for one’s career future.

telcodad

Yeah, this decision seems awfully suspicious to me coming just after Colbert criticized Paramount for its decision to settle president Trump’s lawsuit over 60 Minutes’ edits of their Kamala Harris interview. Colbert has been the top-rated late-night show for years now.

But from an article in the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-07-17/cbs-announces-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-to-end-next-year

“Late Night” averaged nearly 1.9 million viewers per night for the second quarter of the year, according to Nielsen data. ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” pulled in 1.5 million viewers and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” averaged about 1 million viewers.

But while Colbert leads among the broadcast networks, Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” draws a larger audience.

With delayed viewing factored in, Colbert’s show averaged nearly 2.5 million viewers for the season.

CBS’ decision to pull the plug underscores a dramatic shift in audience behavior from just a decade ago when Letterman passed the baton to Colbert.

Younger viewers have little interest in waiting until almost bedtime to watch a 60-minute show.

Instead, they watch short comedic clips on TikTok, YouTube and other apps on their phones. Network efforts to slice and post digestible clips of late-night shows on YouTube and other platforms, in a bid for greater viewership and ad revenue, has gone only so far.

Colbert’s show had been losing money, according to knowledgeable insiders. The steep advertising revenue drop began about three years ago, following pandemic disruptions.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks and other top executives said in a joint statement. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

David Ellison’s Skydance Media is waiting for federal approval to buy Paramount, an $8-billion deal that is expected to usher in a new wave of cost-cutting.

OzarkEdge

Astyanax Apparently Steve didn’t figure out he basically got a new boss back in January and it’s the same guy he’s been trash talking for a decade now on his show. That doesn’t bode well for one’s career future.

Colbert is a smart and decent person and will be just fine in his future career. What doesn’t bode well is banned from discussion here… Colbert is not the only one being silenced.

HFB1217

The New late night trend is for Dumb Ass 3rd Grade Level Game Shows or those Challenge, Survival or Naked Survival shows.
Maybe they will find something cheaper and even more stupid to produce

px_eliezer_

telcodad Yeah, this decision seems awfully suspicious to me coming just after Colbert criticized Paramount for its decision to settle president Trump’s lawsuit over 60 Minutes’ edits of their Kamala Harris interview. Colbert has been the top-rated late-night show for years now.

That’s the point.

Even if CBS is being 100 percent honest about “financial reasons only” which seems doubtful, it would have been smarter to wait until the Skydance merger approval.

px_eliezer_

urbanriot honestly I have no idea how it last this long, Stephen Colbert was a really stiff host who wasn’t entertaining at all, and certainly not funny.

Depends on POV.

One person loves fish but hates steak, another person loves steak but hates fish.

Both are entitled to their preference, and each should at least [respect] the other preference even if not partaking of it.

Likewise, I can’t stand “Gutfield” but it cannot be denied that he has many fervent fans.

bjf123

urbanriot Graham Norton is hysterical. The problem with Colbert, Kimmel, and, to a lesser extent, Fallon, is they’ve gone from being entertainment focused shows to spending way too much time being political and insulting half the country. Letterman, Leno, and Carson, rarely got political, and when they did, it was brief and lighthearted. That’s not the case today.

ElQuintron

px_eliezer_ That’s the point.

Even if CBS is being 100 percent honest about “financial reasons only” which seems doubtful, it would have been smarter to wait until the Skydance merger approval.

It seems a little weak-kneed given the amount of political hosts everywhere else.

urbanriot

px_eliezer_ One person loves fish but hates steak, another person loves steak but hates fish.

Sure except we’re not talking about fish and steak, we’re talking about liver and steak and clearly there aren’t enough people who like liver to keep Colbert on the air, at least not on a major network.

I guarantee you if they found a likable host with comedic timing that didn’t play partisan politics they’d have a successful show on the air. Graham Norton has higher ratings in the UK than Colbert has in a country with 5x the people.

px_eliezer_ Likewise, I can’t stand “Gutfield” but it cannot be denied that he has many fervent fans.

He’s another side of the coin and he wouldn’t even exist if we had a current day Johnny Carson. Honestly, one Johnny Carson is worth 5 of the hosts we have today.

vaxvms

Astyanax

Apparently Steve didn’t figure out he basically got a new boss back in January and it’s the same guy he’s been trash talking for a decade now on his show. That doesn’t bode well for one’s career future.

So why not replace Colbert and keep the show going? That worked for The Tonight Show.

px_eliezer_

urbanriot Graham Norton has higher ratings in the UK than Colbert has in a country with 5x the people.

You raise some good points, but regarding the British market specifically they have far fewer channels/options to choose from compared to the USA.

px_eliezer_

bjf123 Letterman, Leno, and Carson, rarely got political, and when they did, it was brief and lighthearted. That’s not the case today.

However the world has changed greatly in every respect.

Consider that the president himself posts heavily on social media—in fact the president himself has HIS OWN social media company.

No change bigger than that.

If Johnny Carson were here today, he’d have to be a part of the current scene to remain relevant.

urbanriot

px_eliezer_ You raise some good points, but regarding the British market specifically they have far fewer channels/options to choose from compared to the USA.

We had / have Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Gutfield.

They have Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton, and Piers Morgan. Not that far off…

Stembolt

urbanriot ~~Gutfield~~

Gutfeld

Stembolt

CBS Canceling Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ Is an End of an Era for Television — and a Chilling Sign of What’s to Come

Inside CBS’s Breakup With Stephen Colbert: Audience Shifts, Political Humor Made Unsustainable Mix

While Colbert was informed officially Wednesday night of the network’s decision to end “The Late Show,” executives have expressed concerns about the show’s costs for the past several weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter, holding off on a final judgement to allow the host to relax while “Late Show” and other late-night programs were on a production hiatus tied to the July 4 holiday. One of these people says executives didn’t want to force a pay cut or call for trims among the show’s staff, and could not look away from declines in ad support for the entire format.

CBS’ Colbert Axe and Late-Night’s Slow Death

One knowledgable source tells The Hollywood Reporter that they did not believe any of the network late night shows were meaningfully profitable any more, though some deals can be justified by leveraging the hosts in other ways as “company men” (Kimmel, Meyers and Fallon, for example, appear at events like the upfronts, and Kimmel and Fallon have produced and hosted other shows for their parent companies over the years). The Late Show was also harmed by the fact that Paramount couldn’t license it or sell it international markets.