In his first major sit-down since CBS announced it was canceling The Late Show after the show’s current season, Stephen Colbert says that while he was “very surprised” by the network’s reasoning, he also sees an industry “in huge trouble.”
In a wide-ranging conversation with GQ, Colbert opened up about his show’s impending end and the larger financial headwinds facing late-night television
“I found it very surprising,” Colbert said of CBS’s claim that the show was no longer profitable. “I said, ‘Well, if we can’t be, then no one can be.’ They run the business and I run the show, and far be it for me to tell them how to run their business—but I’ll stick with: I found it very surprising.”
CBS described its move as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night, ” with leaked numbers from the network pegging The Late Show’s losses at roughly $40 million a year. Colbert himself has joked about that figure on air, suggesting it’s exaggerated—but he doesn’t deny that the late-night business model has become increasingly unsustainable.
“Television’s in huge trouble,” he told GQ. “Maybe David Ellison will fix everything,” he added, referring to the new Paramount-Skydance leadership. “No, seriously. Maybe he will. But it’s clear that television is in a lot of transitions… That’s not my end of the business. My end of the business is the jokes.”
Colbert went on to describe the cost realities of producing a traditional late-night show—especially one with the scale of The Late Show. “These late-night shows are kind of like symphony orchestras,” he said. “They need a certain amount of personnel to do them. You can’t really do a show in the Ed Sullivan Theater, 11:35 on CBS, with a band and sketches and field shoots and stuff like that, for the cost of a podcast.”
Still, Colbert defended the creative and cultural value of the format even as the economics shift. “You’re keeping these shows on because you love the form,” he said. “It seems indispensable as part of some Americans’ daily experience. But I can understand from a business point of view, they go, ‘Well, that is meaningless to me as someone who has to answer to a board of directors and investors.’”
Asked what late-night still offers that other media can’t, Colbert pointed to the sense of shared experience that he believes anchors the genre. “There’s a sense of community there,” he said. “There are fewer and fewer of what you would call third spaces in our life… And these late-night shows are, for millions of Americans, a third space to come together and think about the day.”
Colbert will succeed no matter where he lands. His fan base respects and loves the guy. If there was a way to bring back his character from the Colbert Report, folks would eat it up. And so can you LOL
Colbert says he’s absolutely done playing that character!
Late night shows are a staple of television for many people, one that will be sorely missed. I cannot think of any substitution that would draw a crowd in the same way, especially with all of the movies and shows readily available on streaming.
There is an element of “come one, come all” with late night that brings everyone together.
They won’t be missed since they turned into a political cesspool meant to sow division between everyone.
Yer teerz iz deelish!😋 🖕😈🖕
well, maybe if he’d accpet less than $15M a year, the show could survive.
Maybe if you didnt’ alienate half the country by spreading lies and hatred, your show would not have been cancelled. Look at Kimmel’s ratings, they are in the toilet thanks to the same thing. Buh bye!
“STOP SAYING MEAN HURTFUL TRUTHS ABOUT US, OR ME TELL DADDY DRUMPF ON YOU, AN’ HE’LL SEND YOU TO EL SALVADOR AN HET BEAT UP ON A DAILY BASIS IN PRISON!😭😭😭😭😭”
You fucking filth are the biggest crybabies on the planet! Grow the fuck up, bitch hole!🖕😈🖕
Absolutely sick of seeing your pathetic little edgelord screed stinking up the comments section. Everyone here, every single person, thinks you’re a pathetic embarrassment, child. Even the people who share the same politics. You and people like you are the last people I want to be associated with. Grow up and shut the fuck up, you stupid little baby.
Perhaps you should be attacking the likes of Joe Schmidt, John Johns, and Mark Anderson, who do nothing but spread lies for their Dear Toddler Drumpf!
Maybe you don’t mind seeing them post their shit, because you’re in agreement with them, Because you love licking Drumpf’s unwiped asshole! In which case, GO FUCK YOURSELF, BITCH HOLE!!!
I’m not going anywheres! And a shit eating ccoksucker, like you, can’t do a fucking thing about it!