CBS said he is canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” at the end of the next television season in May, a victim of industry changes that have given a paralyzing coup to advertising income.
Colbert announced the news to his audience on Thursday during a show recording at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. In a clip published on Instagram, the members of the crowd gasped, then began to boo. Some people shouted: “No!”
“Yes, I share your feelings,” said Colbert.
He said he only learned of the move on Wednesday.
“It is not only the end of our program, but it is the end of 'The Late Show' in CBS,” Colbert said. “I'm not being replaced. All this is disappearing.”
Colbert, 61, has host the show for a decade.
After a rocky beginning, Colbert found his sea legs and soon eclipsed the night lead leader for a long time, NBC with his exclusive humor and his acute shots of political and cultural buttons.
Colbert has long been a star within the CBS parent company, Paramount Global, Rising to Fame in “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” by Comedy Central. Organized the satirical “The Colbert Report” from 2005 to 2014 in Comedy Central, interpreting a cartoon of a conservative political expert.
Once in CBS, Colbert won the Loyal viewers with their abrasing comments about President Trump and his actions, even before Trump was elected in 2016.
In recent weeks, Colbert skewed his own company for his decision to give in to Trump through the solution of the president's demand during the “60 minutes” editions, a case that most of the experts in the first amendment called frivolous. Paramount agreed to pay $ 16 million, and most of that went to the future Trump presidential library.
The dramatic decision to end a franchise that has helped shape pop culture was impressive for some. CBS launched its night block in 1993 with David Letterman after NBC defected.
The Colbert show has classified number 1 among Late Night emitters for nine consecutive seasons.
“Late Night” averaged almost 1.9 million viewers per night for the second quarter of the year, according to Data Nielsen. “Jimmy Kimmel Live of ABC!” He wore 1.5 million viewers and “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” averaged around 1 million spectators.
But while Colbert leads among the transmission networks, “Gutfeld” of Fox News! attracts a bigger audience.
With a late vision factorized in, the Colbert program averaged almost 2.5 million viewers for the season.
CBS's decision to pull the plug underlines a dramatic change in the behavior of the audience for only a decade when Letterman spent the cane to Colbert.
Younger spectators have little interest in waiting until almost bedtime to see a 60 -minute show.
Instead, they see short comic clips in Tiktok, YouTube and other applications on their phones. Network efforts to cut and publish digestible clips of night shows on YouTube and other platforms, in an offer for a greater audience and advertising income, have only gone so far.
Colbert's program had been losing money, according to knowledgeable experts. The steep drop in advertising income began about three years ago, after pandemic interruptions.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop at night,” said CBS Executive President George Cheeks, and other senior executives in a joint statement. “It is not related in any way to the performance, content or other issues of the program that occur in Paramount.”
Skydance Media by David Ellison is waiting for federal approval to buy Paramount, a $ 8 billion agreement that is expected to enter a new wave of cost reduction.
“We believe that Stephen Colbert is irreplaceable,” said Cheeks, along with CBS Entertainment, Amy Reisenbach, and CBS Studios president David Stapf. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS Home. He and the transmission will be remembered in the pantheon of the greats who adorned night television.”
More than 200 people work in Colbert's show and their destination, beyond next spring, is not clear.
“I want to say that the people of CBS have been excellent partners,” Colbert said. “I am very grateful to the Tiffany network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And, of course, I am grateful to you, the public, which has joined us every night.”
