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https://redstate.com/joesquire/2025/07/19/the-numbers-dont-lie-cbss- colbert-cancellation-is-all-about-economics-n2191846

The announcement that CBS will cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"
in May 2026 has sent shockwaves through the political establishment, with prominent Democrats immediately crying foul.

Senator Elizabeth Warren declared that "CBS canceled Colbert's show just
THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its
$16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery. America
deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons."

READ MORE: Oh-So-Sad Writers Guild Demands Investigation Into Colbert Cancellation

Senator Adam Schiff, who happened to be Colbert's guest when the
cancellation was announced, added: "If Paramount and CBS ended the Late
Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves
better."

Even Senator Bernie Sanders joined the chorus, suggesting the timing was
no coincidence: "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."

While the political theater is predictable, the financial data tells a
starkly different story. CBS's decision to end The Late Show isn't
political revenge. If you pay attention to the numbers, it's economic
reality finally catching up with an unsustainable business model.

The Brutal Financial Math
The numbers behind Colbert's cancellation are sobering and have been
building for years. According to industry reports, The Late Show costs CBS approximately $100 million annually to produce, with Colbert's salary
alone reaching $15 million per year. The show employs roughly 200 people, creating significant overhead costs that made sense when late-night
television was profitable, but no longer do.

Most damning of all: CBS was reportedly losing $40 million per year on The
Late Show, despite it being the #1 rated program in its timeslot. When
your most successful show is hemorrhaging that much money, the problem
isn't political pressure—it's structural economic collapse.

This financial bleeding wasn't sudden. Industry sources revealed that CBS
had approached Colbert before this season, asking for salary cuts, with
one source noting that "poverty was pled" during those negotiations. The network had been grappling with these losses for years, not days.

The Industry-Wide Late-Night Collapse
Colbert's cancellation is part of a catastrophic industry-wide decline
that has devastated late-night television economics. Advertising revenue
across the top six late-night programs has fallen more than 50 percent
since 2014 and more than 60 percent from its 2016 peak. The Late Show
alone saw its advertising revenue drop from $121 million in 2018 to just
$70 million in 2024—a devastating 42 percent decline.

This is a problem that extends far beyond Colbert and CBS, too.

NBC's Tonight Show cut production from five episodes to four per week.
Comedy Central struggles to maintain The Daily Show. CBS had already
canceled The Late Late Show and its replacement, After Midnight, within
just a few years. The entire genre is contracting as audiences migrate to streaming platforms and social media.

Meanwhile, traditional television viewership continues its relentless
decline. Streaming now accounts for 46 percent of all television viewing,
while broadcast and cable combined represent just 41.9 percent. Young audiences—late-night's traditional demographic—have largely abandoned appointment television altogether, preferring YouTube clips and TikTok highlights over full shows.

The Letterman Comparison Reveals the Scale of Decline
The contrast with David Letterman's era illuminates just how dramatically late-night economics have shifted. When Letterman debuted The Late Show in 1993, his premiere episode drew 23 million viewers. His first season
averaged 7.8 million viewers nightly—more than triple Colbert's current audience of 2.4 million.

More importantly, Letterman operated in a profitable ecosystem. In 2009,
The Late Show led other late-night shows with $271 million in advertising revenue. By the time Letterman retired in 2015, the show was still
generating $179.6 million annually in advertising for CBS.

Colbert, despite being #1 in his timeslot, operates in a fundamentally different economic environment. The advertising dollars that sustained Letterman's era have evaporated, replaced by digital alternatives that
generate far less revenue per viewer.

The Political Timing Is Circumstantial
Yes, the timing of Colbert's cancellation, three days after he criticized Paramount's Trump settlement, creates optics that Democrats find
suspicious. But correlation isn't causation, and the financial pressures
that led to this decision predate Colbert's Monday monologue by years.

Industry insiders report that Colbert's production team was informed
around July 4th that the show was in jeopardy due to financial
performance. This suggests the cancellation decision was made weeks before Colbert's "big fat bribe" comments, not in retaliation for them.

Furthermore, CBS explicitly stated that the decision was "purely a
financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night" and "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." While politicians may doubt these assurances, the financial data support CBS's explanation.

The Real Lessons
Democrats' rush to frame this as political persecution misses the deeper
lesson about media economics in 2025. The Late Show's cancellation,
despite being the most-watched program in its timeslot, demonstrates that
even successful shows can't survive when the underlying business model collapses.

CBS faced an impossible choice: continue losing $40 million annually on
even their most successful late-night program, or acknowledge that the traditional late-night format is no longer economically viable on
broadcast television. They chose financial reality over sentiment.

The irony is that Democrats' political conspiracy theories overshadow a
more troubling truth: the economic pressures destroying local journalism
and traditional media are now claiming even the most prominent platforms
for political discourse. The Late Show's end represents not political censorship, but the market's verdict on expensive, linear television in
the streaming age.

Stephen Colbert will find other platforms for his voice, and likely more lucrative ones. But CBS's decision reflects hard economic truths that no
amount of political outrage can change. In the battle between financial sustainability and political theater, mathematics wins every time.

The Democrats demanding answers might better spend their time figuring out
how to preserve political discourse in a media landscape where even the
most successful shows can't afford to stay on the air.


--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

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