CBS to cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" next season
The big picture: The sunsetting of the iconic late night show will come in May 2026 and was "purely a financial decision," the network said.
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Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
Washington Post, NY Times columns insist Colbert cancelation is due to obsolete format, not politics
A pair of liberal media columns published this week dismissed the theory that the pending cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is due to politics, arguing it's due to the decline of late-night programs and TV in general. A New York Times guest essay by Puck Media founding partner William Cohan and a column by The Washington Post's Megan McArdle insisted that Colbert's show was losing viewers and money due to people moving away from traditional TV — stating that's the "primary" reason for the cancellation. "That, and not Colbert's politics, is the primary thing you should be thinking about when you ask why the show was canceled. The great unbundling of the old networks and cable packages meant that late-night shows were no longer a hot media property but an economic liability," McArdle wrote on Wednesday. In his Tuesday piece, Cohan said, "I suspect Mr. Colbert's demise had more to do with the increasingly challenging economics of traditional late-night television than it did with bending the knee, yet again, to the Trump administration." The two opinions run contrary to those of Colbert defenders who have speculated that the late-night host's show is on the chopping block thanks to the liberal and anti-Trump content he puts into his show. CBS announced last Thursday that it would cancel "The Late Show" next May at the end of its broadcast season. The network clarified that the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," and noted, "It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." The news comes weeks after CBS and Paramount paid President Donald Trump a $16 million settlement following his lawsuit against the news network for airing an edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election. Puck News journalist Matt Belloni reported last week that the show "has been losing more than $40 million a year." McArdle corroborated the network's reason for canceling Colbert. She wrote that "The Late Show's" ratings "declined from 3.1 million viewers in the 2017-2018 season to 1.9 million last year, with only a couple hundred thousand viewers in the critical 18-49 segment that advertisers covet. Advertising dollars similarly fell by about 40 percent, driving the show to a reported $40 million loss." She continued, noting that the network would have been reluctant to cut Colbert's program if it was generating prestige and buzz. "But it would have been much harder to cancel a show that was making the network lots of money — or at least generating prestige and buzz. By the time CBS pulled the plug, late-night shows were no longer even doing that." Cohan argued that cutting Colbert was clearly a way for CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, to cut costs, as it has expressed it would do. "Last year, the company aimed to cut costs by $500 million and said it would reduce its work force by 15 percent, or by 2,000 employees," he wrote. "Just last month, it announced a work force reduction of an additional 3.5 percent. Mr. Colbert surely wouldn't have been outside the blast zone of these cuts, especially considering the show's losses." He continued, "While Mr. Colbert may still be No. 1 in late-night, many of us are not watching him on CBS at 11:35 at night. We're busy sleeping, or glued to TikTok or X or YouTube or whatever. The numbers prove that reality — the ratings for late-night shows across the board are way down in recent years." Cohan predicted the same fate will befall the other major network late night hosts.. "You can be sure that what happened to Mr. Colbert is a harbinger of what's to come for Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, I'm sorry to say." CBS did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
South Park Creators Reveal Network ‘Notes' For Episode That Mocked Trump
The writer-producers of 'South Park', Trey Parker and Matt Stone, addressed the reaction to the season 27 premiere of their show—which prominently skewered President Donald Trump—during a panel at the 2025 San Diego Comic Con on Thursday night, where they also described the 'notes' they received from the network about the show. Matt Stone, Trey Parker at the Comedy Central Adult Animation panel at the 2025 Comic-Con ... More International: San Diego. Variety via Getty Images Parker and Stone were featured on the 'Comedy Central Adult Animation' alongside comedian and 'Digman!' creator Andy Samberg and 'Beavis and Butt-Head' and 'King of the Hill' creator Mike Judge. The panel began with Parker and Stone being asked if they anticipated the strong reaction to their latest episode, to which Parker jokingly apologized, saying, 'We're terribly sorry.' The panel didn't heavily focus on the episode itself, but while talking about receiving notes from the network for some episodes, Judge asked the 'South Park' creators if they had received any for Wednesday's Season 27 opener. They said the network informed them that the image of the president's genitalia—which appeared during a mock PSA depicting a AI-generated Trump where he is fully naked—would get blurred out. Parker claimed he pushed back, saying 'No, you're not gonna blur the penis,' before Stone pointed out that they added eyes to the genetalia to tackle that. Stone then said this was followed by a conversation 'with a lot of grown-up' people for four days, insisting that the network can't blur the genitalia because it was a 'character.' 'South Park', which is no stranger to controversies, aired its first full episode in more than two years on Wednesday. The episode focused mainly on Trump and Paramount—the parent company of the network and streamer that airs 'South Park.' Multiple segments throughout the show depicted a cartoon version of the president getting in bed with Satan, who is shown as Trump's lover, in a callback to the early days of the show, where Satan and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein were depicted as romantic partners. Jesus Christ, who has been a regular character in the show, reappears in the fictional town of South Park during the premiere and says he had to do this because of the 'lawsuit and an agreement with Paramount,' an apparent jab at the media giant's $16 million settlement with the president. When townspeople ask him for more details, Jesus retorts, 'Do you really want to end up like Colbert?' a reference to the late-night host whose show was canceled by CBS. The show also features repeated depictions of Trump with comedically small genitals, which enrages the fictional version of the president. How Has The White House Reacted To The Episode? The show triggered an angry reaction from the White House, with a spokesperson for the president describing 'South Park' as a 'fourth-rate' show. 'The Left's hypocrisy truly has no end – for years they have come after 'South Park' for what they labeled as 'offense' content, but suddenly they are praising the show,' White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told several outlets. 'This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.' White House Slams 'South Park' Episode That Skewers Trump And Paramount Amid $1.5 Billion Streaming Deal, Skydance Merger (Forbes)
USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
'South Park' creators 'apologize' for latest Trump episode: 'We're terribly sorry'
SAN DIEGO – The day after one of the most controversial episodes in the show's history, 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a succinct response to the ruckus they caused. 'We're terribly sorry,' Parker said with a sly grin at a Comedy Central's Comic-Con animation panel next to Stone, 'Beavis and Butt-Head' honcho Mike Judge and 'Digiman' creator Andy Samberg. The Season 27 premiere of 'South Park' tore into President Donald Trump, showing him literally getting into bed naked with Satan, and referenced their Paramount bosses' settlement with the president, the '60 Minutes' flap and the surprise cancellation of CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." All followed Wednesday by an agreement between Paramount and the 'South Park' creators for 50 new episodes and a lucrative new streaming deal on Paramount+. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers slammed the episode in a statement to USA TODAY, calling "South Park" a "fourth-rate show" that "hasn't been relevant for over 20 years." When Comic-Con panel moderator Josh Horowitz joked that he had a subpoena with him, Parker responded, 'It's fine; we're ready.' Parker and Stone talked at length about the speed of today's topical comedy and making newsy jokes. 'It's not just 'SNL' anymore,' Stone said. Parker revealed that they were at their studios this morning trying to figure out next week's episode. 'Right now we don't know,' Parker said. 'It's super stressful.' And when working on the July 23 season premiere, 'three days ago I didn't know if anyone's going to like this,' Parker added. They were looking at newspapers and changing things on the fly right up until they needed to be done. As far as big ideas for the season go, 'my whiteboard's blank, dude,' Parker said. So much so that when they were asked to do a summer promo video hyping the new season, they made up a bunch of scenes just for that sizzle reel. 'You seriously think we went and made a bunch of shows ahead of time and banked them?' Then Stone chimed in, mock seriously: 'No politics. We're not doing any of that (stuff).' Stone said he feels most competitive with 'what the kids are doing on TikTok and YouTube.' In fact, he and Parker admitted they now get a lot of their entertainment online and from social media. 'We have a great gig, but I'm jealous. You see someone do something in their front yard and it's really funny.' Contributing: Brendan Morrow
