CBS canceling Colbert raises questions on late night time

There are two faculties of thought round CBS’ choice to finish “The Late Present with Stephen Colbert.”

The primary says the cancellation is a one-off exit from the storied time slot — that Paramount was attempting to push via the crimson tape to finally merge with Skydance Media, a deal that was accepted by the Federal Communications Fee Thursday after greater than a yr in limbo.

The opposite says it indicators the start of the top of late night time TV.

The leisure trade can have a greater sense of the place the reality lies subsequent yr when Disney decides the destiny of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night time present, “Jimmy Kimmel Reside.”

Whereas NBC not too long ago prolonged the contracts of its two late night time hosts, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, into 2028, Kimmel’s contract is about to lapse in 2026.

“Jimmy Kimmel Reside” has been a late night time staple since 2003, performing not solely as a typical discuss present on the circuit, however as a helpful advertising hub for Disney’s slate of theatrical and tv content material. Along with conventional one-on-one interviews, Kimmel will even incessantly host a number of stars from the identical challenge, typically for blockbuster titles from Marvel, Star Wars and the corporate’s animated franchises.

Clips from these chats are fed onto Kimmel’s YouTube channel, which has greater than 20 million subscribers, and throughout social media, serving to to generate buzz for upcoming Disney tasks.

For comparability, Fallon’s present account has round 32 million subscribers, whereas Colbert’s stands at 10 million and Meyers’ at simply over 5 million.

Kimmel can also be a frequent host of the Academy Awards, which airs on Disney’s ABC, and is at present the host of ABC’s celebrity edition of “Who Needs to Be a Millionaire.” These ancillary assignments, in addition to his annual job closing out Disney’s Upfronts presentation for advertisers, could make Kimmel extra essential to Disney’s long-term future than Colbert was for Paramount or CBS.

Nonetheless, whereas the following take a look at of media’s dedication to late night time is months off, the top of “The Late Present with Stephen Colbert” is looking consideration to the mounting pressures on conventional TV and elevating questions in regards to the whether or not the time slot can survive the evolving viewing panorama.

The price of producing late night time packages has risen because the media trade has been upended by streaming and shifting shopper habits. The standard pay TV bundle has misplaced hundreds of thousands of shoppers lately, and as they’ve disappeared, so too have promoting {dollars}.

The shifting equation has pressured media firms to rebalance.

At a big scale, firms like Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery have opted to separate off their cable TV networks into separate company entities.

On the programming stage, large reveals are more and more greenlit for launch on streaming companies reasonably than conventional networks. Salaries of extremely paid information anchors have moderated, with some stepping away from conventional networks completely and beginning out their very own ventures. And far of the cash spent on bulking up each linear TV networks and streaming companies is earmarked for dwell sports activities.

That leaves acquainted titles in flux.

“The Late Present with Stephen Colbert” employed round 200 individuals and recorded annual losses of round $40 million, in response to an individual acquainted with the matter, who declined to be named talking about nonpublic issues. “Jimmy Kimmel Reside” employs round 250 individuals and loses roughly the identical quantity, in response to an individual acquainted with that present’s funds.

Whereas the pay-TV bundle nonetheless rakes within the highest share of earnings for legacy media firms – a lot of which stems from the charges that pay-TV distributors hand over to the networks to be included within the bundle – that determine is in decline.

Linear TV promoting income has additionally been on a gentle downward slope. Business analysts and specialists anticipated the advert market to stabilize in 2025 after tumultuous streaming-centric years, however macroeconomic uncertainty has hampered the recovery.

In quarterly earnings that have been reported in Might, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Disney every reported decrease advert gross sales on a year-over-year foundation.

Paramount reported in Might that its first-quarter TV promoting income was down 21% to $2.04 billion, primarily attributable to comparisons to the prior-year interval when the corporate had the Tremendous Bowl. That championship beckons probably the most advert {dollars} of any dwell occasion on TV. With out the Tremendous Bowl, advert income would have been flat, the corporate stated. Total income for Paramount’s TV section was down 13%.

Of the normal TV advert spend that does stay, the largest share has gravitated to dwell sports activities, which draw the biggest audiences. NBCUniversal recently touted its file advert gross sales quantity throughout the newest Upfront cycle attributable to an upcoming slate of NBA, the Tremendous Bowl, Winter Olympics and different sports activities.

Disney reported in Might that quarterly income for its home linear networks was down 3% to $2.2 billion, attributing the decline to decrease advert income. Nonetheless, Disney famous advert income for ESPN and sports activities generally noticed a rise in advert income.

These headwinds assist legitimize Paramount’s choice to cancel “The Late Present with Stephen Colbert,” however the timing of this system’s finish has raised suspicions.

The announcement that Colbert’s present would take its last bow in Might 2026 got here simply days after the tenured host publicly known as out Paramount for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over the enhancing of a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Colbert known as the settlement a “large fats bribe” throughout considered one of his show-opening monologues, referencing the then-pending merger between Paramount and Skydance Media, which required the approval of the Trump administration to proceed.

Paramount and CBS executives launched a press release final week saying the cancellation was “purely a monetary choice in opposition to the difficult backdrop in late night time.”

“It’s not associated in any solution to the present’s efficiency, content material or different issues occurring at Paramount,” the corporate continued.

Whereas scores for Colbert’s present have declined during the last decade, this system has persistently achieved the very best views of any present within the 11:35 p.m. hour, outdrawing ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Reside” and NBC’s “The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon,” in response to Nielsen.

Nonetheless, Colbert’s scores have been declining every season. For the newest September-to-Might time interval, Colbert averaged roughly 1.9 million viewers, with nearly all of viewership coming within the age demographic of over 65, in response to Nielsen — a telling knowledge level in regards to the state of TV viewership.

Kimmel’s viewership paints an analogous image, with viewership dropping from the September-to-Might time interval in 2019-2020 to the newest in 2024-2025, when the common was practically 1.6 million viewers, in response to Nielsen.

When Paramount listed its slate of extremely rated TV reveals throughout its final earnings report, together with “Tracker,” the highest rated collection and “Matlock,” the very best rated new collection, it additionally listed Colbert’s “The Late Present” as the very best rated broadcast late night time present. “The Each day Present,” additionally from Paramount, was the highest late night time present on cable TV.

Some trade specialists have questioned whether or not CBS might have explored different methods to economize — or save late night time — apart from outright canceling “The Late Present.” NBC minimize prices by eliminating the band on Meyers’ late night time present and shifting Fallon to 4 nights every week as a substitute of 5.

CBS tried to carry a youthful demographic into the hour with “After Midnight,” a late night time present that ran after Colbert. The present was hosted by comic Taylor Tomlinson and was centered on viral web phenomena.

Although CBS meant to resume the present after its first two seasons, Tomlinson determined to not lengthen her contract, and the present was canceled.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the mother or father firm of CNBC.