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Top O' the Briefing
Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Stedwërgenz felt no reason to explain why braunschweiger was his preferred medium for
sculpting Peloponnesian War figurines.
While I was putting together the Briefing last night, it looked like I
might finally have to write something about the Epstein nonsense. That had
all the appeal of getting a root canal while CNN is on in the background.
So it was with a combination of shock and relief that I read "The Late
Show with Stephen Colbert" was being cancelled by CBS.
As much as I have been lamenting the pathetic state of late-night
television, the news really did take me by surprise. I thought that if attrition was going to hit the genre, it would begin with "Jimmy Kimmel
Live!" on ABC. While not the venerable institution that "The Tonight Show"
is, "The Late Show" has been around for a while.
Here is the beginning of David's excellent post on the news:
Nearly all of us have that uncle who knows he is the funniest guy in the
room. Unfortunately, he has to explain his own jokes, wait for the laughs,
and hear crickets.
That is Stephen Colbert.
After a long decade of being our unfunny uncle, he repeats that act every night. Finally, at long last, CBS performed the act that most Americans
have been steadily doing for years: pulling the plug.
"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" airs its final episode in May 2026, marking the end of a decade of monologues that replaced comedy with exact
moral instructions, revealing how Colbert and the left feel about us.
CBS is calling the cancellation a "financial decision," but here in
reality, we call it a mercy killing.
David does a fantastic, detailed breakdown of Colbert's popularity with
the coastal leftist echo chamber. Colbert, Kimmel, and — to a lesser
extent — Jimmy Fallon, have become leftwing cheerleaders rather than
comics who are interested in entertaining a wide audience. When the late-
night death knell finally rings, it will be that myopic political focus
that does it.
As David mentions in his post, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno talked to their audiences, while Colbert talks at his. Craig Ferguson was the last truly
fun late-night host, and he did it with sheer goofiness. His "Late, Late
Show" on CBS was all about making audiences laugh at lighthearted humor.
In reality, Ferguson is far more politically astute than Colbert or
Kimmel, he just never let it infect his show.
Contrary to the myth that has grown about Carson over the years, he did
use to do political jokes. A lot of them, actually. He just spread them
around both sides, and he never let on which party he preferred. He wanted
to appeal to the entire country. Colbert wants to make sure that
conservatives know he hates us. He's very good at that, by the way.
Colbert recorded an announcement about the cancellation after taping
Thursday's show, and it perfectly encapsulates the prog tone-deafness that
led to its demise. He begins by talking about the "great show" that he'd
just done with his guest, Sen. Adam Schiff. "The Late Show" under Colbert
has not only routinely sucked up to Dem politicians, but it has a
predilection for the most toxic Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers in Congress.
It's true that the television landscape has been rapidly changing in the streaming era. Conventional programming is all on shaky ground; even
casual observers know that. There are going to be a lot of "financial decisions" in television for a while. Stephen Colbert made a deliberate
choice to alienate half of his potential audience.
Trust me, there wasn't a lot of hand-wringing among CBS executives when
they were deciding whether to axe this show.
Contributions to the Mailbag of Magnificence can be sent to
kruisermb@gmail.com
https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2025/07/18/the-morning-briefing- colberts-tedious-reign-as-the-anti-carson-is-coming-to-an-end-n4941861
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