Stephen Colbert cancellation opens a door for college football and CBS

USA Today

3 days ago

The cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert signals the end of late-night talk shows as we have known them. There are many ways in which one can assign meaning to the news which grabbed headlines on Thursday, but the bigger overall reality is that late-night talk just isn't hitting the sweet spot for CBS and other networks. Maybe it's simply a case of today's personalities not being as good or as funny as Johnny Carson or David Letterman, but regardless, the late-night talk-show concept seems to be on the way out. This does open the door for college football in the media landscape, particularly at CBS.
Before continuing with this article, stop and realize how dramatically different college football has become in just the past few years. Oklahoma and Texas have moved to the SEC. Four West Coast schools moved to the Big Ten. Colorado, Utah, Arizona State, and Arizona moved to the Big 12. The Pac-12 as we knew it is gone. The College Football Playoff moved from four teams to 12. This is enough change for 20 years. It has been squeezed into four years. If you think that doing something different -- making a big change -- is disorienting or somehow inappropriate, stop and realize how much change you have already had to digest in just a few years. One more big change isn't going to hurt anything, and as you will soon find out, it might be really enjoyable:
CBS programming
CBS Sports has media rights deals with the Pac-12 and the Mountain West. We are not going to say or imply these are major or "power" conferences. They're not. However, they are the two primary conferences with Pacific and Mountain time zone schools. CBS -- before even mentioning the Stephen Colbert cancellation -- was already in a position to more aggressively feature Pac-12 and Mountain West sports programming.
Colbert's demise and late-night irrelevance
Johnny Carson and David Lettermen both flourished in an age when there were far fewer cable channels and the media landscape wasn't nearly as fragmented. Stephen Colbert's exit from the late-night stage reflects the waning influence and cultural relevance of the late-night talk show format and concept. This is a steady erosion of a particular kind of TV programming. It's not as though CBS is likely to replace a fading talk show with another talk show. CBS needs a real alternative.
The enduring power of sports on TV
In an age when so many media properties and specific forms of television programming have lost their popularity and their ability to achieve cultural penetration, live sports remains an eye-grabber. Instead of scripted content, live sports offers the original version of reality TV. Sports will continue to have a meaningful place in any media universe or ecosystem. If media companies are looking for alternatives to less relevant forms of content or inventory, live sports offer a natural and ever-present answer.
Not just Thursdays or Fridays
Typically, the two weeknights with regular college football programming are Thursday and Friday. CBS Sports Network regularly has a Friday night Mountain West football game.
Stephen Colbert's exit, and the larger overall decline of the late-night talk show, give CBS a real chance to think about using Mountain West football as a regular late-night programming option -- not just on Thursdays and Fridays.
Yes, you know where this is going, but there's an important note to emphasize here.
Western Maction
This is the basic concept attached to CBS having a late-night Mountain West or Pac-12 football game Tuesdays through Fridays during each college football season, as a replacement for talk shows such as Stephen Colbert.
ESPN has media rights for the Mid-American Conference. "Maction" has become a cult favorite among college football diehards. The MAC gets the stage to itself on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in November. CBS is in a position to basically provide Maction on a larger scale in two conferences, not just one. The Mountain West and Pac-12 can achieve more visibility for their product by stuffing the schedule with Tuesday and Wednesday games. CBS can instantly fill the yawning gap in its late-night schedule.
College football fans win big
In November, we could have ESPN Maction at 8 p.m. Eastern time, followed by CBS Western late-night football -- Mountain West or Pac-12 -- at 11 or 11:30 p.m. Eastern. November Group of Five Tuesday night doubleheaders? Who says no? Fans win.
The future of college football scheduling
With the arrival of the 12-team College Football Playoff, teams need to have more space between games. Having games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays gives teams more days between games. A team would play one game on Saturday, October 15, then its next game on Tuesday, October 25, then its next game on Saturday, November 5. Maction-style scheduling in the West gives teams more recuperation time between games in addition to increased TV exposure.
The mistakes of the old Pac-12
The Pac-12 is now something completely different from the older iteration. The old Pac-12 never really pounced on the idea of playing football on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Had it done so, it might have given ESPN a little more incentive to sweeten the pot for an attractive media rights package which could have kept the league intact. The new Pac-12 and the reconfigured Mountain West need to be open to new ways of presenting themselves on TV. The cancellation of the Stephen Colbert program could give CBS some ideas. The Pac-12 and Mountain West should be on the phone with the network now.
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