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'Late Show' to end in May 2026

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Show had been losing $40 million per year, source says

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Critics ask if politics played a role as Paramount seeks

merger

approval

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES, July 19 (Reuters) - Late-night television

had been fighting for its survival even before "The Late Show

with Stephen Colbert" was canceled this week.

The announced end of one of the most popular broadcast

late-night shows, days after host Stephen Colbert accused the

network owner of bribing President Donald Trump to approve a

merger, drew cries of political foul play from liberal

politicians, artists and entertainers.

"Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most

popular late-night host, slams the deal. Days later, he's fired.

Do I think this is a coincidence? NO," Vermont Senator Bernie

Sanders, an independent, wrote on X.

CBS executives said in a statement that dropping the show

was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop

in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's

performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."

Whether or not politics were at play, the late-night format

has been struggling for years, as viewers increasingly cut the

cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger viewers, in

particular, are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok,

leaving smaller, aging TV audiences and declining ad revenues.

Americans used to religiously turn on Johnny Carson or Jay

Leno before bed, but nowadays many fans prefer to watch quick

clips on social media at their convenience. Advertising revenue

for Colbert's show has dropped 40% since 2018 - the financial

reality that CBS said prompted the decision to end "The Late

Show" in May 2026.

One former TV network executive said the program was a

casualty of the fading economics of broadcast television.

Fifteen years ago, a popular late-night show like "The

Tonight Show" could earn $100 million a year, the executive

said. Recently, though, "The Late Show" has been losing $40

million a year, said a person briefed on the matter.

The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2 million last year

from $121.1 million in 2018, according to ad tracking firm

Guideline. Ratings for Colbert's show peaked at 3.1 million

viewers on average during the 2017-18 season, according to

Nielsen data.

For the season that ended in May, the show's audience

averaged 1.9 million.

'SHOCKED BUT NOT SURPRISED'

Comedians like Colbert followed their younger audiences

online, with the network releasing clips to YouTube or TikTok.

But digital advertising did not make up for the lost TV ad

revenue, the source with knowledge of the matter said.

The TV executive said reruns of a hit prime-time show like

"Tracker" would leave CBS with "limited costs, and the ratings

could even go up."

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is just the latest

casualty of the collapse of one of television's most durable

formats. When "The Late Late Show" host James Corden left in

2023, CBS opted not to hire a replacement. The network also

canceled "After Midnight" this year, after host Taylor Tomlinson

chose to return to full-time stand-up comedy.

But the end came at a politically sensitive time.

Paramount Global ( PARAA ), the parent company of CBS, is

seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for

an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. This month Paramount

agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over a "60 Minutes"

interview with his 2024 Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris.

Colbert called the payment "a big fat bribe" two days before

he was told his show was canceled.

Many in the entertainment industry and Democratic

politicians have called for probes into the decision, including

the Writers Guild of America and Senator Edward Markey, who

asked Paramount Chair Shari Redstone whether the Trump

administration had pressured the company.

Paramount has the right to fire Colbert, including for his

political positions, Markey said, but "if the Trump

administration is using its regulatory authority to influence or

otherwise pressure your company's editorial decisions, the

public deserves to know."

A spokesperson for Redstone could not immediately be reached

for comment on Friday night.

"It's a completely new world that artists and writers and

journalists are living in, and it's scary," said Tom Nunan, a

veteran film and TV producer who is co-head of the producers

program at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. "When

the news came in about Colbert, we were shocked but not

surprised."