In the long run, the mathematics simply didn’t add up.
CBS pulled the plug on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Present” because of monetary concerns, the community defined. The information despatched the far-Left trades right into a tailspin.
Contemplate:
Cue the crying rooms and coloring books.
Then once more, these similar websites have been selling and amplifying Colbert’s far-Left shtick for years, so naturally they’re upset. Few media voices pushed the progressive agenda extra forcefully than Colbert.
And, apparently, that got here at a value. A hefty value.
The timing and optics are horrible, however Stephen Colbert’s present prices greater than $100M a yr to supply and is dropping greater than $40M a yr. CBS execs had been mulling for a very long time whether or not to tug the plug. Particulars ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/gjSuazpef9
— Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) July 18, 2025
Puck Information studies that CBS shells out $100 million a yr to maintain “The Late Present” afloat. Much more stunning? The present reportedly loses the Tiffany Community $40 million, or extra, every year.
Think about that – the community swallows laborious and coughs up thousands and thousands simply to place a late-night speak present on the air. Colbert’s wage, reported to be no less than $15 million yearly, didn’t assist. The present’s massive employees of 200 members harm, too.
The present wasn’t dropping that a lot cash a couple of years again. Late-night TV present revenues have crashed lately. What was as soon as a worthwhile panorama is now in cost-cutting mode.
- “The Tonight Present” shrank from 5 nights to 4 final yr
- “Late Evening with Seth Meyers” fired its home band.
- And, when CBS mentioned goodbye to “The Late Late Present” host James Corden, it selected a less expensive program to exchange him. (That present is gone now, too)
So why did CBS voluntarily cough up $40 million for clapter, Colbert model? In spite of everything, it’s present enterprise. Recall how ABC canceled “Final Man Standing” regardless of robust rankings as a result of sitcom’s massive funds. That’s what we have been informed on the time.
The numbers should add up. They usually didn’t for “The Late Present.” But CBS absorbed these losses up till now.
Why?
To understand the massive image, it helps to take a step again. CBS’s information division has grow to be one other a part of the Trump Resistance. Anchor Margaret Brennan’s “journalism” has grow to be so sloppy she’s ceaselessly showcased in conservative podcasts and websites.
That is being shared all over the place, and it needs to be, as a result of it’s traditionally illiterate, antagonistic to a elementary worth, and completed so condescendingly from a extremely paid “information” desk.
CBS Margaret Brennan blames free speech for the Holocaust.
pic.twitter.com/hRGvVuvjE4— Will Cain (@willcain) February 16, 2025
‘I don’t actually care, Margaret’: Vance carpet-bombs Margaret Brennan interview with inconvenient information and customary sense https://t.co/M9de6eGkjM pic.twitter.com/2iz9IjxyWI
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 27, 2025
CBS’s 2024 vice presidential debate put its overt biases in prime time.
And let’s not neglect how CBS’s “60 Minutes” selectively edited Vice President Kamala Harris through the warmth of the 2024 marketing campaign to make her sound extra presidential. President Trump sued CBS over the matter, and community brass settled for $16 million.
Liberal critics decried that settlement (as did Colbert). That, plus CBS’s mum or dad firm Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance is why the community lower ties with Colbert’s “Late Present,” they argue.
That assumes a broadcast firm should ignore a program that units it again thousands and thousands every year. CBS was prepared to pay that value for its most popular agenda, however not indefinitely.