The Death of Wit: Colbert, Stewart Make Paramount's Case

If anyone wonders why the late-night talk-show genre is dying, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart gave timely demonstrations last night. 

Before we get to that, though, let's set the context. Paramount and CBS announced last week that they would not renew Colbert's contract, which expires in May 2026, and for financial reasons would not continue the show with or without Colbert beyond that point -- but would keep Colbert on the air until the end of the contract. While Democrats and fellow late-night hosts accused Paramount of caving to Trump, the New York Times made it clear that the financial basis of the show had collapsed over the last few years and now operates deeply in the red:

“The Late Show,” a fixture of the network for over three decades, was racking up losses of tens of millions of dollars a year, and the gap was growing fast, according to two people familiar with the show’s finances. Like other late-night shows before it, “The Late Show” was canceled when the network could not figure how to make the finances work in an entertainment world increasingly dominated by streaming.

So as CBS executives mapped out the schedule and budget for next year, George Cheeks, CBS’s president, decided in recent weeks that the network couldn’t take those losses any more, the two people said. Mr. Colbert learned of the decision on Wednesday night. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, CBS’s parent company, learned about it on Thursday, according to two other people.

 And it's not just The Late Show that loses money for its networks, either:

Over the past couple of years, many of the surviving late-night shows cut their budgets. Network late-night shows now generally produce four new episodes a week, down from five, in an attempt to save money. “Late Night With Seth Meyers” now frequently tapes two episodes on Mondays to limit filming to three days a week.

“The Late Show” began losing money at least three years ago, two people familiar with the finances said. Like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC, it cost more than $100 million a year to produce. CBS executives weighed the possibility of trying to find ways to sharply reduce its budget but, amid the mounting losses, concluded that there was not a viable path to profitability, one of the people said.

Other sources put the losses close to $40 million a year for CBS, which Colbert disputes. However, given how other networks have pared down their late-night offerings, it's clear that the genre is dying of two terminal illnesses. The first is their cost to produce these shows, and the second is audience disinterest. That's more than just a change in the way that viewers access entertainment, which the NYT suggests is the primary issue. It may be a contributing factor, but the main problem is that these shows have become nothing more than "regime comedy," as I have put it for a while. They relentlessly push hard-Left agendas, engage in partisan hackery, and aim for 'clapter' rather than genuine laughs. As a result, they have curated audiences so narrowly that there is almost no way to attract numbers that would support their bloated budgets.

In that sense, CBS and Paramount are actually being generous in allowing another season of losses to occur in order to give Colbert a year-long exit. How did Colbert pay Paramount back for that?

That's a lot of effort by Colbert and his staff to accuse Paramount of being in bed with Trump for his 'cancellation.' Think of all the expense that went into this for the usual Trump Derangement Syndrome payoff. It almost makes Paramount's case about finances for them.

Paramount just learned why most broadcasters don't give hosts a chance for a lengthy farewell. No good deed goes unpunished. 

At least this had some semblance of comedy. Jon Stewart, who participated in this sketch, offered up this NSFW middle finger to Paramount, who also owns the Daily Show platform:

And he wasn't disappeared or thrown out a window? Weird.

The point is everyone is over this kind of tiresome performative clapter https://t.co/J9lFv6lWtw

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 22, 2025

That is exactly the point. That's why The Late Show and its entire genre will go the way of the dodo, probably within a couple of years if not by the time Colbert airs his last episode next year. Assuming Paramount doesn't pull the plug on the show sooner, that is. 

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