The Real Reason CBS Canceled Stephen Colbert: It’s Not Politics, It’s Math
When news broke on July 17 that CBS had canceled Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, citing “financial” reasons, a predictable chorus of political explanations followed.
And, of course, President Donald Trump was somehow central to it. More on that in a few graphs.
Speculate through the tears or the laughter, because this cut is about as polarizing as any one you will see in television, but let me offer you one thing, friend: It’s a hell of a business plan to, night after night, insult half of Americans because of their political ideology while welcoming media-infatuated politicos such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) onto your show to tell the president to “piss off.”
America’s changing media consumption habits tell a story and perhaps the only story here—one where appointment television has become economically unsustainable, and where programming choices that alienate broad swaths of your potential audience only make a difficult situation worse.
Late Night TV is Dying
The Hollywood Reporter revealed some brutal truth in its July 18 reporting: Perhaps none of the big-budget late-night network shows is profitable anymore.
“In terms of linear TV ratings, all of the late night shows are a shadow of their peaks, according to Nielsen data for live +7 and original episodes only: Colbert: 2.47M viewers; Kimmel: 1.75M; Fallon: 1.25M; Meyers: 949K; After Midnight [also recently canceled]: 652K; and Nightline: 827K. According to the media measurement firm iSpot, brands have spent an estimated $32.2 million on advertising on the Late Show this year, while spend[ing] on Kimmel and Fallon’s shows topped $50 million each.”
$32 million or $50 million ain’t what it used to be. Colbert is paid, per industry reports, between $15-20 million a year and the Late Show had in the ballpark of 200 employees.
Maybe it’s just that Colbert can’t read a P&L.
But here’s the unnecessary political drama that some would like to plug into the ending of a show that once was great, certainly was profitable, but lost its way in an era where the end of network television’s stranglehold on information and entertainment is beginning to look like the crash scene in the Great Gatsby.
The cancellation of the Late Show next May is not connected to the $16 million settlement between President Trump and CBS’s parent company (over a manipulated “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign), Paramount, nor is it any form of retaliation or delayed payback.
While Paramount is currently awaiting FCC approval for its acquisition by Skydance—a deal that's been pending since September 2024, months before Trump was inaugurated—this corporate transaction is also wholly unrelated to the show’s demise.
The true reason for the cancellation is straightforward in the show’s economics: According to a report from Puck, Colbert’s show has been hemorrhaging money –– losing approximately $40 million per year.
No, it’s looking very much like the show was undone by demographics, an economic inevitability, but a lopsided political posture that undoubtedly expedited its demise.
The Colbert Problem: Programming for Half an Audience
Colbert’s unrelenting ideological assault left no room for soft-right and many soft-left viewers.
Consider the guest roster from 2024:
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (two appearances),
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (two appearances),
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (two appearances),
New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (two appearances),
California Rep. Nancy Pelosi,
Vice President and former presidential candidate Kamala Harris,
Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, and
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Media figures who appeared on the show, including: John Dickerson (three appearances), Anderson Cooper (two appearances), Rachel Maddow, and Bob Woodward, aren’t regarded as centrists.
The list reads like a who’s who of progressive politics.
Sure, Republican-ish former U.S. representative Adam Kinzinger appeared, too, but to call those who support Trump part of a cult.
Here’s a critical business lesson: When you program exclusively for one political perspective, and I would think that this is incredibly important at a network level, you’re knowingly and voluntarily cutting your potential audience in half, or more.
The show is built in the New York bubble and performed as if the 400 or so people in the studio audience were the only ones who mattered. And, as Schiff’s appearance the night after the announcement the show was being canceled amplified, the idea that they were alienating half their potential audience is inconsequential. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
When entertainment options are infinite and available on-demand, there’s no reason to subject yourself to content that repeatedly reminds you that you are stupid and that your worldview is illegitimate.
Hell, I can get that pretty much on-demand, without leaving my driveway, for free. (Does anyone else have teenagers at home?)
The Harsh Business Reality
Let’s make a distinction here that is important.
Video is and will continue to play a huge part in the future of news and entertainment. Video is an incredible medium. The Center Square is firmly focused on building meaningful video content, which I am sure you are seeing in local news outlets, across social media, and being clipped into local news broadcasts.
But we are not asking anyone to show up at 7 p.m. – let alone 11:35 p.m. – to watch it. We’re creating it, and then streaming it as quickly as we can ensure the highest editorial standard in the production process. The videos are short, contextual, and they give you the story straight.
All the tears from those who think – or worse, say – that this is political payoff are being wasted. Don’t ever waste tears. You may need them later.
CBS executives weren’t responding to political pressure—they were responding to mathematics. When you voluntarily eliminate half your potential audience through ideological programming choices, and layer that on top of the structural decline in appointment television viewership, you create an unsustainable business model.
The streaming revolution succeeded precisely because it abandoned appointment viewing and offered something for everyone. Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok don’t care about your political affiliation. Colbert’s show was asking people to organize their evenings around 11:35 PM start times to consume content that half of them found politically objectionable.
The Local News Gateway is Broken
Here’s something else to consider: Local nightly news was once the gateway to late-night shows. And this could spell the end for all of what now exists in late-night. Appointment television is your grandfather’s Oldsmobile.
The share of Americans who say they follow local news “very closely” has crashed to just 22% in 2024 from 37% in 2016, per Pew Research—a 15% decline in less than a decade.
If Americans won’t commit to closely following local news, why would they stay up until 11:35 PM for late-night entertainment when they can – and, more importantly, do – watch it on their phones anytime they’d like.
In 2018, 76% of local TV news consumers got their information through an actual television set. By 2024, that number had fallen to 62%. Meanwhile, digital pathways grew from 24% to 37% of local TV news consumption.
The era of gathering around the television at appointed times is over, and late-night shows that require viewers to stay up until nearly midnight are swimming against an irreversible tide.
So, Not Good News for Late-Night TV
Colbert’s show was the king of what the network ratings indicate is a molehill rather than a mountain.
And, mind you, Colbert, whose show had the largest late-night audience among all of the three networks – is not being replaced, the show is being canceled. Gonzo. Meanwhile, Greg Gutfeld’s show at Fox News is hitting numbers above those of Colbert’s – on cable.
Begs a question: Could the financial fortunes at ABC or NBC be any better with their late-night programming? Begs an answer: Unlikely.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is arguably as fixated on the Trump administration as Colbert. In 2024, he hosted: CNN anchor and Biden decoder Jake Tapper, VP Harris, Jane Fonda, George Conway, Adam Kinzinger, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, and Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Again, not exactly a diverse ideological group.
NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, interestingly, did not have a single political figure on his show last year. Not one.
Johnny Carson was the king of late night TV. In his “60 Minutes” interview in 1979, Carson said “I have an aversion to political jokes. I don’t want to hurt anybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to divide the audience.”
The future for Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and the rest of late-night TV is primed for either a significant reinvention or all-out elimination. Waiting until 11:35 p.m. to watch anything, unless the target demographic is second-shift workers, doesn’t seem like anything that anyone would need to do.
Stephen Colbert didn’t lose his show because he mocked Trump. He lost it because he forgot the first rule of show business: you need an audience to have a show and stay in business.
When you spend every night telling half of America they’re idiots, don’t be shocked when they change the channel. Or stop watching the entire network associated with your show.
When you demand viewers show up at 11:35 PM for appointment television in the age of TikTok, don’t be surprised when they don’t. And when you’re bleeding out, $40 million a year, while your competition on cable is beating you with a smaller budget and smarter shows that draw in more diverse ideological audiences, don’t blame politics for your cancellation.
The Late Show died the same way Blockbuster did—not from some grand conspiracy, but from refusing to read the room. Carson knew you don’t divide your audience. Netflix knows you give everyone something to watch. Gutfeld knows you can win late night without alienating half the country.
Colbert’s epitaph won’t read “Silenced by Trump.” It’ll read “Killed by Math.”
Chris Krug is the publisher of The Center Square. The Center Square newswire service partners with more than 1,250 local news partners across the United States, providing taxpayer-centric coverage of local, state, and national government accountability reporting as part of Franklin News Foundation’s 501c3 nonprofit mission.