Latest news with #StrikeForceFive
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CBS' Colbert Axe and Late-Night's Slow Death
Late night hosts are just like us: They vent in group texts too. So it is that CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert, NBC Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, Late Night host Seth Meyers, ABC host Jimmy Kimmel and HBO Last Week Tonight host John Oliver 'commiserate' in a group text, stemming from their strike-era podcast Strike Force Five. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jimmy Kimmel, Elizabeth Warren, Ben Stiller React With Shock Over CBS' Decision to End 'Late Show': "F*** You and All Your Sheldons CBS" Critic's Notebook: The Awful Optics of CBS Canceling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' 'Late Show' Shocker: CBS Ending Late-Night Franchise in 2026 'It's helpful for us to cross-pollinate the information we're hearing from the people in charge of our networks to make sure it's all checking out with everybody else, and also just to commiserate, because everybody who's doing this, to some degree, obviously remembers a time where things were a little more flush,' said Meyers on the Good One podcast last month. When pressed whether we are in the end of the era of late night TV, Meyers said 'there's always a chance something turns around and all of a sudden it's on the upswing again, but I certainly would bet on there being fewer [late night shows] in the future.' Of course, not even Meyers could have foreseen how quickly the dominoes would fall. The cancellation of the most-watched show in late night TV, Colbert's Late Show, stunned the TV world Thursday, as well as CBS staff. It is a 'painful time' a source says, while another insider describes the staff being understandably 'stunned and devastated.' Even Colbert was surprised. He found out about the decision after Wednesday's taping, and rather than wait to disclose the decision to viewers, opted to reveal it himself a day later, fearing an inevitable leak of the cancellation. 'I share your feeling,' Colbert said, as the crowd in the Ed Sullivan Theater booed after he broke the news. One knowledgable source tells The Hollywood Reporter that they did not believe any of the network late night shows were meaningfully profitable any more, though some deals can be justified by leveraging the hosts in other ways as 'company men' (Kimmel, Meyers and Fallon, for example, appear at events like the upfronts, and Kimmel and Fallon have produced and hosted other shows for their parent companies over the years). The Late Show was also harmed by the fact that Paramount couldn't license it or sell it international markets. The same source predicts that Paramount will put the iconic Ed Sullivan Theater at Broadway between 53rd and 54th street on the market in conjunction with the end of the Late Show, noting that the company has already sold off its Radford and Studio City lots in Los Angeles, and the CBS corporate headquarters building in New York. That will likely be a decision for Skydance leaders David Ellison and Jeff Shell, however. Late night used to command attention from insomniacs, college students and marketers looking to reach an audience that was traditionally younger than primetime. But those days are long gone, and a time where a host had an eight-figure annual contract to host a daily show in a midtown Manhattan theater with 400 seats and a staff that topped 100 seems like a relic of a bygone era. Colbert's contract was set to end after the coming season, perhaps explaining the timing for the decision, as negotiations for a renewal would have begun in earnest soon. As for the rest of the network late-night landscape, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! will begin the final season of its current three-year deal in the fall. NBC late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers signed deals last year to continue hosting The Tonight Show and Late Night through 2028, though whether the shows survive in their current iterations until then is less certain today than it was just a few years ago. The youthful audience that once flocked to late night now spends most of their time on social-first video platforms, where a new generation of talent is emerging. And while many of the late night shows have found a meaningful audience on platforms like YouTube by creating original content or repackaging their TV segments, the revenue from those digital sources can't offset the lost dollars from linear TV. 'I think the biggest reach for all of these shows now clearly is — you can call whatever you want — it's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, social. That's where these shows get reach, and that's where they have their power,' says Gavin Purcell, the former showrunner of NBC's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. 'On networks, it's just trickier now, the economics are different.' NBC's Tonight Show is the most popular of the programs on social platforms, with 32.7M YouTube subscribers and 19.2M Instagram followers, followed by Kimmel with 20.7M YouTube subscribers and 4.3M Instagram followers, and The Late Show with 10M on YouTube and 3.7M on Instagram. In terms of linear TV ratings, all of the late night shows are a shadow of their peaks, according to Nielsen data for live +7 and original episodes only: Colbert: 2.47M viewers; Kimmel: 1.75M; Fallon: 1.25M; Meyers: 949K; After Midnight: 652K; and Nightline: 827K. But the ratings don't tell the whole story. According to the media measurement firm iSpot, brands have spent an estimated $32.2 million on advertising on the Late Show this year, while spend on Kimmel and Fallon's shows topped $50 million each. Both ABC and NBC sell packages around their late night shows that are inclusive of digital channels. Either way, it's hard to shake the feeling that the late night talk show format is simply dying a slow death. Former late night hosts have found success elsewhere (Trevor Noah and Conan O'Brien both have significant followings for the interview-driven podcasts), while efforts in streaming have not pierced the popular culture in the same way, even if Netflix's David Letterman series and John Mulaney's experimental talk shows suggest they are trying. One thing is sure: Colbert will have options when he does cede the desk, even if it may not be on 'late night.' Purcell, who now hosts a podcast called AI For Humans on YouTube and other digital platforms, suggests that the future of late night talk shows, and perhaps a viable future for Colbert personally, is embracing the reach of digital media, and creating something new at a smaller, more sustainable scale. The economic model of YouTube has improved to the point where it can sustain a real business. Maybe not one of the scale or scope of the CBS Late Show, but certainly something that rhymes with it, as Hot Ones, Good Mythical Morning and Chicken Shop Date show. 'My big thesis here is that what you're seeing is the slow destruction of the traditional Hollywood pipeline, and you're going to see a lot less big shots, and a lot more individuals taking a shot,' Purcell says. 'Distribution is easy now. That's the thing that's really interesting. What's hard is attention. And the thing that Colbert and that team still do a great job of is commanding attention.' Rick Porter and Tony Maglio contributed to this report. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Miami Herald
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Seth Meyers criticized for not helping wife with sick daughter during speech
Seth Meyers is praising his wife for a job well done. The 51-year-old comedian and late-night talk show host has been married to his wife, human rights attorney Alexi Ashe, for nearly 12 years since tying the knot in September 2013, per People. The pair have since welcomed two sons, Ashe Olson and Axel Strahl, and one daughter, Adelaide Ruth. On May 31, Meyers took to Instagram to praise his wife after she delivered her commencement address at the Albuquerque Academy — an independent college preparatory school she graduated from in 2002. But it wasn't just her speech that garnered Meyers' attention. 'So proud to watch Alexi crush her commencement address while also putting on a motherhood clinic without missing a beat,' Meyers wrote in the caption alongside photos of his wife at the ceremony. According to the post, the couple's daughter Adelaide, 3, wasn't feeling well that day. 'Our daughter was under the weather and not interested in being with anyone but her mom,' Meyers added. 'Instead of sending her home she let her join her on stage without ever losing her cool.' Adelaide spent time in her mother's arms and seated in a chair next to her mother during the event. 'Oh you can see it in Addie's eyes she's not her usual self. Superwoman!' fellow comedian Amy Schumer wrote in the comment section. But Adelaide wasn't the only one to crash her mother's speech. 'And then to top it all off her niece just wandered to stage mid speech to chill behind the podium,' Meyers continued in the caption. The moment was captured in the fifth slide of Meyers' post. Aside from Schumer, celebrities Chelsea Handler, Ali Wentworth and Kenan Thompson praised Ashe for her multi-tasking speech over the weekend. Fans were also quick to applaud the mother of three. 'Way to go! Love seeing an accomplished woman who isn't embarrassed to be a mom with a child who needs her,' one fan wrote, while another commented, 'And that's why women should rule the world!!' A third fan gave kudos to the school for allowing Ashe to be there for her daughter during the speech. But some fans were more shocked at the fact that Meyers didn't help. 'Am I the only one who thinks someone should have helped with the kiddo so she can focus on the task at hand?' one commenter asked. 'There's a whole meme about dads failing to let moms have their moments like this, and just letting kids do this. So uncool of you,' another fan argued. 'This is just sad,' a third commenter added. 'Jeez can she get one moment of her own?' Meyers met his future wife at actor Chris Kattan's 2008 wedding to Sunshine Tutt, per Today. As Meyers explained on a 2023 episode of the 'Strike Force Five' podcast, it didn't take long for the couple to build chemistry — and it wasn't just them that saw sparks flying. 'Alexi and I hit it off to the point on Friday night, that on Saturday, people kept asking us how long we'd been a couple,' he said. 'That's the level of flirty we were, the second day we knew each other.' In 2013, after five years of dating, Meyers proposed by tying a ring in a bow around their dog's collar. The couple tied the knot a few months later and have been married since. They welcomed their first son, Ashe Olson, in 2016, followed by a second son, Axel Strahl, two years later and their daughter, Adelaide Ruth, in 2021. The pair celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary in September 2023. 'Ten years ago today I married the brilliant and beautiful, Alexi Ashe,' Meyers wrote in an Instagram caption alongside a photo of his wife. 'Photographed here maintaining her grace while three children scream at her off camera and I ask if she's seen my wallet and right shoe,' he joked.
