The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to End in May 2026

Octavean

If I were to guess, I’d say Saturday Night Live is next. That’s not a suggestion as to if I think it is well deserved or not but rather just a predication.

egeezer

px_eliezer_
Well, Colbert does have a long record of needling the present PC rules and irritating people who routinely use their power to threaten, punish and silence ‘incorrect’ or unapproved observations. Just firing Colbert in the face of top ratings for the time slot would be too revealing, so ditching the show entirely is a way to provide CBS Paramount plausible deniability of ‘caving’ when acceding to pressure from authorities’ PC police.

Octavean If I were to guess, I’d say Saturday Night Live is next.

Quite likely, for the same reasons.

px_eliezer_

Octavean If I were to guess, I’d say Saturday Night Live is next. That’s not a suggestion as to if I think it is well deserved or not but rather just a predication.

Well, Lorne Michaels is 80 years old Kein Ayin Hara (“no evil eye” so basically the Yiddish version of Knock Wood), so that can be a factor too (either sincere or used as an excuse).

px_eliezer_

Octavean If I were to guess, I’d say Saturday Night Live is next. That’s not a suggestion as to if I think it is well deserved or not but rather just a predication.

OTOH, this will probably protect Kimmel and Fallon, at least for a while, as it would just seem too obvious.

Sort of an immunization.

Also if CBS replaces Late Show with something like “Fish Police” which was on CBS in 1992, then Kimmel and Fallon might pick up more viewers at least for a while.

Assuming for a moment that this truly was just about money, CBS is being mistaken if they only look for viewer numbers in real time.

Many people see portions of the show on YouTube or other clips.

There are other carryover benefits that management is probably ignoring.

People who were regular Colbert views ar 11:35 (Eastern) tended to watch the local news (11:00) on the local CBS station, helping those local stations in the very competitive news market.

And most of the larger CBS stations are network-owned, not just affiliates.

The CBS show “Fish Police” floundered after just 3 episodes…

telcodad

px_eliezer_ Also if CBS replaces Late Show with something like “Fish Police” which was on CBS in 1992, then Kimmel and Fallon might pick up more viewers at least for a while.

px_eliezer_ The CBS show “Fish Police” floundered after just 3 episodes…

Yeah, before the Late Show, CBS aired a number of different programs in that 11:30/11:35 PM ET timeslot:

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Show_(franchise)#Prior_to_the_Late_Show

Prior to the Late Show
CBS had previously attempted late-night talk shows with The Merv Griffin Show (1969–1972) and The Pat Sajak Show (1989–1990) but neither were able to compete with NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and were cancelled; Griffin’s for editorial disputes with the network (he would go on to continue the show in syndication for 14 more years), and Sajak’s for low ratings. For most of the 20 years preceding Late Show, CBS’s late night fare consisted of movies, re-runs, imported Canadian dramas and specialty programming packaged under the titles CBS Late Night and Crimetime After Primetime and broadcast to middling ratings. … Before Letterman’s arrival, CBS’ New York flagship, WCBS-TV, specifically used the Late Show name for its late-night movie programming.

Dks01

We are seeing the death of political satire. Unfortunate, but the humourless have won the day. If you can’t skewer the political class, who remains?

telcodad

Stembolt

Still, many people still don’t buy that CBS’s canceling of the show was “purely a financial decision” and “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ viewers question why CBS canceled popular late-night show as Trump celebrates the decision
By Katie Mather, Reporter, Yahoo News - July 18, 2025
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/article/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-viewers-question-why-cbs-canceled-popular-late-night-show-as-trump-celebrates-the-decision-171737309.html

… Lawmakers and other media hosts are questioning the timing of Colbert’s jokes about the Paramount settlement and his show getting canceled all in one week, especially with other changes that have happened at CBS over the past few months. Since Trump filed the lawsuit in October 2024, Bill Owens, a former 60 Minutes executive producer, and Wendy McMahon, the former head of CBS News, stepped down from their roles, claiming they were concerned their journalistic independence was at risk. After Paramount settled the lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times reported that some CBS employees believed the settlement was influenced by Paramount’s pending $8.4 million merger with Skydance Media, which requires the Trump administration’s approval. ….

mmmdonuts

telcodad “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.

The top of the poop heap is still the poop heap.

Dks01

mmmdonuts Judge much? Just don’t watch it. Free speech and all that.

ugly95

Trying to avoid the politics of it, I’ll just say this:

I never found Colbert funny. Even before he was on the late show. But I’m pretty sure it was the highest rated late night show. For the most part, I find everything on CBS to be pretty stiff. But somehow that network seems to consistently have the highest ratings.

One thing that has been mentioned is how young people watch TV. Or rather don’t. I think a lot of people, if they watch the late night shows at all, is just through clips on social media.

Fallon is a little cringe. He comes off as so desperate to be liked by everybody.

Kimmel seemed to be the only one that was funny to me.

I’ve never watched Gutfeld outside of a few clips I’ve seen. From the little bit I’ve seen, I’m not sure there are words capable of describing the depths of his lack of humour.

px_eliezer_

ugly95

I agree about Fallon, he so badly wants to please.

But my wife and I consistently find Colbert very, very funny.

Kimmel’s pretty good too.

As they say, different jokes for different folks.

I couldn’t possibly be married to someone who didn’t appreciate Colbert.

mmmdonuts

Dks01 Judge much? Just don’t watch it. Free speech and all that.

Judge? It’s what Colbert and Kimmel have been doing for the last 4-5 years so just giving back. Besides this ain’t grade school, judging is what people do IRL. And re: free speech, that’s what my post was.

Astyanax

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

That may indeed happen. Notice they didn’t keep calling it “Late Night with David Letterman” with just Stephen Colbert hosting it.

px_eliezer_

Astyanax

The announcement has been that there will be no more “Late Show” of any sort after next May.

egeezer

px_eliezer_ The CBS show “Fish Police” floundered after just 3 episodes…

I see what you did there.

Astyanax

Dks01 Judge much? Just don’t watch it. Free speech and all that.

CBS is also free to do their deal or not.

Astyanax

px_eliezer_ there will be no more “Late Show” of any sort after next May.

Signed,

CBS Legal Department

😉

Astyanax

px_eliezer_ As they say, different jokes for different folks.

Maybe if they told different jokes for all folks they might actually double their ratings.

The late night business model of entertaining half the country and insulting and pi**ing off the other no longer works.

InternetJeff

Welp, as has been said before: If you don’t like how XYZ is being run, go make or buy your own XYZ. That sort of thing has been offered up when other social or media companies have been criticized for how they’ve operated.

If people don’t like CBS/Paramount’s management decisions, people are free to start their own network, or buy CBS/Paramount, and run it how they see fit.

As far as any particular show on any particular network, you’ve got to make money. Regardless of the alleged ratings, if you’re not drawing suitable ad revenue, you’re done. Unless you want to charge people to watch your stuff. Put it behind the paywall and let’s see how popular it really is. See how many people actually vote with their wallets.

Stembolt

nytimes:

Not Even ‘The Late Show’ Could Defy Gravity

“The Late Show,” a fixture of the network for over three decades, was racking up losses of tens of millions of dollars a year, and the gap was growing fast, according to two people familiar with the show’s finances. Like other late-night shows before it, “The Late Show” was canceled when the network could not figure how to make the finances work in an entertainment world increasingly dominated by streaming.

So as CBS executives mapped out the schedule and budget for next year, George Cheeks, CBS’s president, decided in recent weeks that the network couldn’t take those losses any more, the two people said.

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