Latest news with #TVcancellation
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Late Show' Shocker: CBS Ending Late-Night Franchise in 2026
In a surprise announcement Thursday, CBS and Late Show host Stephen Colbert said the show will come to an end in May 2026. Colbert told the show's live audience during the taping of Thursday's show at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York. In a statement, CBS said the cancellation was 'purely a financial decision' made in a declining linear TV landscape. More from The Hollywood Reporter Trump Reacts to 'Late Show' Ending: "I Absolutely Love That Colbert Got Fired" Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon Shocked Over CBS' Decision to End 'Late Show': "F*** You and All Your Sheldons" Critic's Notebook: The Awful Optics of CBS Canceling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' The end of The Late Show at the end of the 2025-26 season will leave CBS without a late-night presence for the first time since 1993, when David Letterman moved from NBC to launch The Late Show. Colbert took over the show in 2015 and has been a consistent ratings leader among the network 11:35 p.m. shows for much of that time. The announcement also comes as CBS' parent company, Paramount Global, is hoping to close a merger with Skydance in the next few months. The company recently settled a lawsuit filed last year by Donald Trump (before he was elected to a second term as president) over a 60 Minutes interview with Trump's election opponent, Kamala Harris. The settlement is widely seen as helping the merger's chances for approval by the FCC under the Trump administration — and which Colbert criticized upon his return from a hiatus earlier this week. In its statement, CBS said that wasn't a factor in the decision. 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,' reads a statement from Paramount co-CEO and CBS president and CEO George Cheeks, CBS Entertainment head Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios president David Stapf. 'We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television. 'This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount. 'Our admiration, affection, and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult. Stephen has taken CBS late night by storm with cutting-edge comedy, a must-watch monologue and interviews with leaders in entertainment, politics, news and newsmakers across all areas. The show has been No. 1 in late night for nine straight seasons; Stephen's comedy resonates daily across digital and social media; and the broadcast is a staple of the nation's zeitgeist. 'The accomplishments of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert are memorable and significant in performance, quality and stature. With much gratitude, we look forward to honoring Stephen and celebrating the show over the next 10 months alongside its millions of fans and viewers.' For his part, Colbert told the audience Thursday that he was informed of the decision to end The Late Show on Wednesday night, drawing boos from the crowd. 'Yeah, I share your feelings,' he said. '… This is all just going away. I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course, I'm grateful to you, the audience who have joined us.… And I am extraordinarily, deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here.' Watch Colbert's full announcement below. 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. (Kimmel and others reacted to the news.) 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 Solve the daily Crossword
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Late-night hosts react to cancellation of Stephen Colbert show as Trump says 'Kimmel is next'
By Jessica Riga , ABC Jacinda Ardern on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has blasted television network CBS for cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , as the US president took to social media to revel in the news and warn, "Kimmel is next". Stephen Colbert announced on Thursday (US time) that his late-night show has not been extended beyond the upcoming broadcast season, meaning it will end in May next year. CBS executives released a statement calling the move a "purely financial decision", labelling Colbert "irreplaceable". "[The decision is made] against a challenging backdrop in late night," the statement read. Fellow late-night hosts have reacted with shock and anger, with Kimmel writing on social media: "love you Stephen. F*** you and all your Sheldons CBS". Jimmy Kimmel. Photo: TOMMASO BODDI Jimmy Fallon, host of The Tonight Show , wrote on social media that he was "just as shocked as everyone". "Stephen is one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it. I really thought I'd ride this out with him for years to come," he wrote. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump seemed to delight in the announcement, writing on his own social media platform Truth Social, "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired". "His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!" Trump added: "Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show." US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski US media is reporting that CBS's parent company, Paramount, is seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for a merger with Skydance Media, in a deal worth $US8.4 billion (NZ$14 billion). Paramount also agreed this month to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over an interview with his Democratic challenger in the 2024 presidential race - former vice-president Kamala Harris - that CBS's 60 Minutes programme broadcast in October. Critics, including Colbert - who often condemns the president's actions on his show - say the company settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale. In a scathing monologue delivered on Monday, local time, Colbert said he was "offended" by the settlement and joked that the technical name in legal circles for the deal was a "big fat bribe". In its statement, CBS executive said the cancellation of Colbert's show "is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount." To the boos of the audience at the news of the announcement, Colbert said, "Yeah, I share your feelings". "It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away." Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime critic of the US president, joined those calling for more transparency around the show's cancellation. "CBS cancelled Colbert's show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump - a deal that looks like bribery," Senator Warren wrote on social media. "America deserves to know if his show was cancelled for political reasons." Senator Elizabeth Warren. Photo: AFP / Getty Images Eleven-time Emmy award winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus defended the late-night host, writing, "I stand with my friend Stephen Colbert". She then directed a David Graham quote at CBS, Paramount and chairwoman Shari Redstone. "Institutions that are willing to sacrifice their values for the government's favour are likely to end up with neither," she wrote. A slew of stars commented on an Instagram post shared by The Late Show and Colbert's personal account. "Love you Stephen. This is absolute bulls***," Severance star Adam Scott wrote. "And I for one am looking forward to the next 10 months of shows." Seth Meyers, the host of Late Night , also weighed in on Instagram. "For as great a comedian and host he is, Stephen Colbert is an even better person," he wrote. "I'm going to miss having him on TV every night, but I'm excited he can no longer use the excuse that he's 'too busy to hang out' with me." Colbert took over as host of The Late Show in September 2015, succeeding veteran broadcaster David Letterman, who launched the programme in 1993 after Jay Leno was named host of NBC's flagship Tonight Show . - ABC
CNN
5 days ago
- Business
- CNN
Inside CBS' ‘agonizing decision' to cancel Colbert's top-rated late-night show
Source: CNN From the outside, the idea made no sense at all. Why would a broadcast network cancel one of its best-known shows that ranks number one in its time slot? But on the inside, at CBS, there were several plausible answers to that question. While 'The Late Show' host Stephen Colbert was on his usual mid-summer vacation earlier this month, CBS executives weighed the pros and cons of canceling the unique but unfortunately unprofitable show. The 'cons' were obvious, as evidenced by the studio audience's boos when Colbert announced the cancellation on Thursday night. However, the 'pros' ultimately won out because, according to sources close to the network, 'The Late Show' was losing money and there was no apparent path to turning around its financial position. It was an 'agonizing decision,' as the executives admitted in a statement. But CBS insiders insist, even when speaking frankly on condition of anonymity, that the move was financially driven, not politically motivated. Many observers have huge doubts about that, given that Colbert has been an outspoken critic of President Trump. The Writers Guild of America, which represents writers on 'The Late Show,' said Friday that it is concerned the cancellation was a 'bribe' to curry favor with the Trump administration. The guild wants the New York state attorney general to launch an investigation. While the political uproar continues, here's what the data indicates. The bottom has indeed been falling out of the late-night TV business model for several years now. Audience fragmentation and digital competition have led to a decline in ad revenue across the board. One insider described it as 'cratering' at CBS. That's because, even though Colbert outrated his competition at 11:35 p.m., the overall audience for late-night has been shrinking. 'Ad dollars and audiences are moving away from late night shows,' Variety reported — and that was back in 2023. The financial picture has only gotten gloomier since then. Guideline, an ad data firm, estimates that the networks' late-night shows earned $439 million in ad revenue in 2018 and only $220 million in 2024 — a decline of 50 percent. The shows hosted by Colbert and his rivals, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, are inherently expensive to produce, with hundreds of staffers and elaborate studio productions. The shows are also an awkward fit on streaming platforms since they tend to be topical, limiting the shelf life of the content. Colbert's commentaries and interviews often go viral on social media, but that attention isn't easily converted into cold, hard cash since CBS doesn't control the social platforms. But couldn't CBS have explored changes to the cost structure? That's what the network did later in the evening, in its 12:35 a.m. time slot, in 2023. 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' ended, partly due to the fact that it was no longer making money for CBS, and a cheaper show called 'After Midnight' was launched in its place. Colbert was an executive producer on both 'After Midnight' and 'The Late Show,' so he had some visibility into the financial circumstances. But the swiftness of the network's decision suggests that he wasn't given much time to suggest cost savings or other alternatives. That's why one person close to Colbert described the show's retirement, effective in May 2026, as a 'casualty of the merger.' That merger is CBS parent Paramount's long-gestating deal with Skydance, a media company controlled by David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison. The elder Ellison is a longtime friend of President Trump and has previously described himself as a Trump supporter. And David Ellison was spotted with the president earlier this year at UFC matches. The pending deal matters for two reasons: One, because companies almost always try to cut costs around the time of a merger; and two, because the deal requires sign-off from the Trump administration. Paramount entered into a settlement agreement with Trump earlier this month to resolve Trump's lawsuit against the CBS News program '60 Minutes.' The company said it would pay $16 million toward Trump's future presidential library. Trump suggested at the time that there were other components to the settlement. While there is no evidence that Colbert's cancellation is connected to the settlement, Democratic senators like Elizabeth Warren are asking questions about the possibility. 'America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,' Warren said in a statement Thursday night. At the very least, CBS executives moved forward with the retirement of 'The Late Show' franchise knowing that the optics would cause all manner of controversy. Trump personally celebrated the cancellation on Friday morning, writing on Truth Social that 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!' See Full Web Article
BreakingNews.ie
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Stephen Colbert announces Late Show cancelled by CBS
CBS is cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert next May, ending a decades-old TV institution and removing from air one of US President Donald Trump's most prominent and persistent late-night critics. The announcement followed Colbert's criticism on Monday of a settlement between Mr Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a 60 Minutes story. Advertisement Colbert told his audience at New York's Ed Sullivan Theatre that he had learned on Wednesday night that after a decade on air 'next year will be our last season', adding: 'It's the end of The Late Show on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.' The audience responded with boos and groans. 'Yeah, I share your feelings,' the 61-year-old comic said. Three top Paramount and CBS executives praised Colbert's show as 'a staple of the nation's zeitgeist' in a statement that said the cancellation 'is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night', adding: 'It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.' Advertisement In his Monday monologue, Colbert said he was 'offended' by the 16 million dollar settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media needs the Trump administration's approval. Mr Trump had sued Paramount Global over how 60 Minutes edited its interview last autumn with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Critics say the company settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale. Colbert took over The Late Show in 2015 after becoming a big name in comedy and news satire working with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and hosting The Colbert Report. The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert gaining viewers so far this year and winning his timeslot among broadcasters, with about 2.41 million viewers across 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert's Late Show landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show. It won a Peabody Award in 2021. Advertisement David Letterman began hosting The Late Show in 1993. When Colbert took over, he deepened its engagement with politics. Alongside musicians and film stars, Colbert often welcomes politicians to his couch. Democratic senator Adam Schiff, of California, was a guest on Thursday night. Mr Schiff said on X that 'if Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better'.
Arab News
5 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Stephen Colbert's ‘Late Show' canceled by CBS, ends May 2026
CBS is canceling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape and removing from air one of President Donald Trump's most prominent and persistent late-night critics. Thursday's announcement followed Colbert's criticism on Monday of a settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a '60 Minutes' story. Colbert told his audience at New York's Ed Sullivan Theater that he had learned Wednesday night that after a decade on air, 'next year will be our last season. ... It's the end of 'The Late Show' on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.' The audience responded with boos and groans. 'Yeah, I share your feelings,' the 61-year-old comic said. Three top Paramount and CBS executives praised Colbert's show as 'a staple of the nation's zeitgeist' in a statement that said the cancellation 'is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.' In his Monday monologue, Colbert said he was 'offended' by the $16 million settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media needs the Trump administration's approval. He said the technical name in legal circles for the deal was 'big fat bribe.' 'I don't know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company,' Colbert said. 'But, just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help.' Trump had sued Paramount Global over how '60 Minutes' edited its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Critics say the company settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale. Colbert took over 'The Late Show' in 2015 after becoming a big name in comedy and news satire working with Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show' and hosting 'The Colbert Report,' which riffed on right-wing talk shows. The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert gaining viewers so far this year and winning his timeslot among broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert's 'Late Show' landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show. It won a Peabody Award in 2021. David Letterman began hosting 'The Late Show' in 1993. When Colbert took over, he deepened its engagement with politics. Alongside musicians and movie stars, Colbert often welcomes politicians to his couch. Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California was a guest on Thursday night. Schiff said on X that 'if Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.' Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a similar statement. Colbert's counterpart on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel, posted on Instagram 'Love you Stephen' and directed an expletive at CBS. Actor and producer Jamie Lee Curtis noted in an interview in Los Angeles that the cancellation came as the House passed a bill approving Trump's request to cut funding to public broadcasters NPR and PBS. 'They're trying to silence people, but that won't work. Won't work. We will just get louder,' said Curtis, who has previously criticized Trump and is set to visit Colbert's show in coming days. Colbert has long targeted Trump. The guests on his very first show in September 2015 were actor George Clooney and Jeb Bush, who was then struggling in his Republican presidential primary campaign against Trump. 'Gov. Bush was the governor of Florida for eight years,' Colbert told his audience. 'And you would think that that much exposure to oranges and crazy people would have prepared him for Donald Trump. Evidently not.' Late-night TV has been facing economic pressures for years; ratings and ad revenue are down and many young viewers prefer highlights online, which networks have trouble monetizing. CBS also recently canceled host Taylor Tomlinson's 'After Midnight,' which aired after 'The Late Show.' Still, Colbert had led the network late-night competition for years. And while NBC has acknowledged economic pressures by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers' show and cutting one night of Jimmy Fallon's 'The Tonight Show,' there had been no such visible efforts at 'The Late Show.' Colbert's relentless criticism of Trump, his denunciation of the settlement, and the parent company's pending sale can't be ignored, said Bill Carter, author of 'The Late Shift.' 'If CBS thinks people are just going to swallow this, they're really deluded,' Carter said. Andy Cohen, who began his career at CBS and now hosts 'Watch What Happens Live,' said in an interview: 'It is a very sad day for CBS that they are getting out of the late-night race. I mean, they are turning off the lights after the news.'
