Behind CBS’s The Late Show Cancellation

CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a franchise that’s been running for over 30 years, shows how depressed economics, changing viewing habits, and potentially political pressure are spelling the end of the format.

The Big Picture: Once upon a time in the monoculture, late-night talk shows were the water coolers of the national conversation. But the digital revolution has fractured and personalized cultural discourse to the point where it seems, for the most part, that late-night hosts are speaking into a growing void… slowly ceding the throne to social media.

Behind the Scenes: Even though The Late Show was the highest-rated late-night show (an average of 2.47 million viewers per night), that wasn’t enough to save it.

• Last year, The Late Show captured 29% of the $220.6 million in ad dollars committed to the top five late-night shows (one of the biggest ad-hauls for CBS) — but that total ad spend was nearly half of what was committed in 2018.
• So, instead of drastically reducing the show’s budget — which has happened at the other late-night shows— Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, simply decided to cancel the show before getting to re-up the writers’ contracts next month.
• Colbert will be able to run out the clock on his current contract, which expires in May 2026 — so expect Colbert to really speak his mind (as he has with Paramount’s controversial FCC settlement).

Final Taping: While investigations are underway to explore whether there was a political or corporate angle to the show’s cancellation (which, perhaps), CBS has already signaled it was getting out of the late-night game. The broadcaster canceled The Late Late Show with James Corden a couple of years back, replacing it with After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson… only to cancel that too when Tomlinson didn’t return. The dominoes are just continuing to fall.

Up Next: With Jimmy Kimmel’s deal at ABC expiring in 2026, and Jimmy Fallon’s and Seth Meyers’ deals with NBC ending in 2028, the late-night landscape could be almost non-existent by the end of the decade.