Latest news with #broadcast
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Is Colbert's Ouster Really Just a ‘Financial Decision'?
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET on July 18, 2025 Building an empire takes decades. Destroying it can take only a few years, and sometimes the vandals are in the palace, not outside the gates. For much of the 20th century, American broadcast television revolved around three networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. William S. Paley, CBS's longtime CEO, made sure that his company—the Columbia Broadcasting System—was a leader among them. The network was home to Edward R. Murrow, who brought World War II in Europe home to Americans on CBS Radio; after the war, Murrow's reporting played a pivotal role in bringing down Senator Joseph McCarthy. Walter Cronkite dominated American evenings from his perch at the Evening News. And from the days of Mike Wallace to the more recent era of Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes set the standard for long-form television reporting. Yet CBS's current ownership seems determined to demolish this legacy. This evening, the network announced plans to end The Late Show With Stephen Colbert when the host's contract ends next May. Late-night personalities come and go, but usually that happens when their ratings sag. Colbert, however, has consistently led competitors in his time slot. CBS said this was 'purely a financial decision,' made as traditional linear television fades. Perhaps this is true, but the network that once made Cronkite the most trusted man in America no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. CBS's owners have made a series of decisions capitulating to President Donald Trump, and the surprise choice to allow Colbert—a consistent, prominent Trump critic—to walk seems like part of that pattern. One reasonable starting date for the trouble would be 2016. That was both the year that Trump was first elected president and the year that Sumner Redstone, the cussed but aging owner of CBS's parent company, Paramount, surrendered control to his daughter, Shari Redstone. In 2023, Shari Redstone began seeking a buyer for the company, eventually striking a deal, in 2024, with Skydance. The merger requires federal approval. During the 2024 presidential campaign, 60 Minutes interviewed Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent. Trump sued CBS, alleging that the network improperly edited her interview. As supposed evidence, he cited different excerpts of the interview that had aired on different CBS shows. (If CBS was seeking to hide anything, then airing the clips on its network wasn't a very effective way to do it.) He demanded $20 billion, a sum that was preposterous especially because—as most First Amendment lawyers agreed—the suit had no merit. But Trump had major leverage: He won the November presidential election, giving him a role in approving the proposed Skydance-Paramount merger. During his first term, he'd already demonstrated his willingness to use his approval power to punish political opponents in the media, unsuccessfully seeking to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner. Since the election, CBS has seemed eager to please Trump however it can, though the company continues to insist the merger has no bearing on its decisions. The network handed over transcripts of the 60 Minutes interview to Brendan Carr, the close Trump ally appointed to lead the Federal Communications Commission. In April, the 60 Minutes chief Bill Owens, a widely respected journalist, stepped down. 'It's clear the company is done with me,' he told staff during a meeting. In a memo, he elaborated: 'Over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for '60 Minutes,' right for the audience.' Some of the shows' reporters, who are not prone to histrionic statements or partisanship, raised alarms in interviews and speeches. Earlier this month, CBS agreed to a $16 million settlement to end Trump's lawsuit. The agreement doesn't pay Trump directly, but the network agreed to pay legal fees for him and a co-plaintiff, and to contribute to Trump's future presidential library. Trump has stated that the deal also includes unspecified 'advertising,' reportedly for public-service announcements that boost Trump-approved causes. Paramount denies this. Now comes Colbert's departure. If the reasons are truly financial, one wonders how his salary compares to the money spent to settle a dubious lawsuit. The president now seems favorably disposed toward the merger. Last month, he spoke highly of Skydance head David Ellison, who is the son of Oracle founder and Trump pal Larry Ellison. Still, the deal has not yet been approved by the FCC. Paramount's and Skydance's executives have demonstrated that they aren't interested in defending CBS's journalism or its editorial independence, to the detriment of not only the network's historical reputation but also the many excellent journalists still working there. Journalism, along with Colbert's program, makes up only a small portion of Paramount's portfolio, and so business executives might view sacrificing them to preserve a deal as a prudent, if cold-blooded, maneuver. But the recent experience of another Columbia—Columbia University—offers a warning. When assailed by the Trump administration, the university's administration struck a conciliatory stance, trying to make a deal with the president. The capitulation only encouraged Trump, who then sought a judicial decree for oversight of the school. (The two parties are still in talks.) What happened at Columbia is the same thing Trump has done to many other adversaries: If you give him an inch, he'll take a yard, and immediately scheme to grab a mile, too. Institutions that are willing to sacrifice their values for the government's favor are likely to end up with neither. This article originally misstated CBS's full name as 'Columbia Broadcasting Service.' Article originally published at The Atlantic Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Six great reads: sports bros, London's most rock'n'roll hotel and Tetris-like architecture
'Today's sports broadcast world,' wrote Aaron Timms in this fascinating exploration of the sports-based manosphere, 'runs according to a new set of rules, in which 'respectable' TV and the demimonde of sports podcasts, streaming, and shitposting increasingly intersect: all engagement is good engagement, and the best type of filter is no filter. Whatever faint norms of decorum constrained earlier generations of professional sports talkers have faded completely. There's a reciprocal flow of testosterone and ideas between these shows, the world of sports, social media and real life. A handful of subjects and themes recur: veneration of the military, glorification of strength and traditional 'male' values, celebration of gambling, the denigration of women and anything thought to represent 'woke' culture.' Read more A new architectural guidebook was written as a love letter to the Ukrainian city – then Russia started bombing it. How will this home to Tetris-like offices and daring curved cinemas be rebuilt, asked the Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright. If you liked this piece, you might also be interested in Charlotte Higgins's feature on the ghost museums of Ukraine. Read more One of the giants of British media, Street-Porter is a regular on Loose Women, a former TV executive, newspaper editor and author – and about to launch a one-woman stage show. Before she dashed out of the restaurant where they met for lunch, she told Simon Hattenstone about love, regrets and her fury with her late mother. Read more Nearly seven years ago, Emmanuel Carrère travelled on the presidential plane with Emmanuel Macron, to profile him for the Guardian. It was at the start of his first term in office, and everything seemed to be going well for him. Now, Carrère wrote on Tuesday, hating Macron is a national sport in France. For the long read, Carrère travelled once more with the French president, this time to Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, for the recent G7 conference most notable for Donald Trump's abrupt departure: 'With [Trump] gone, the tension subsided. We could breathe again but there was no denying that the game had lost some of its appeal. Even though the second day was no more than a half day it dragged on, which was all the crueller given that its star was Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Invited by the G7, he had travelled more than 3,000 miles just to see Trump and beg him once again not to completely abandon Ukraine, and Trump once again humiliated him, this time by leaving just before he arrived.' Read more On Monday, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services. Their story – of a woman born into extraordinary aristocratic privilege and her life with a violent convicted rapist – grimly fascinated Britain. For an extraordinary long read, Sophie Elmhirst spent months attending their retrial and chronicled the chaotic scenes as Gordon chose to defend himself and Marten pushed the patience of the presiding judge to its limits. Read more The Columbia hotel in west London was known for its cheap rooms, its bar's flexible opening hours, and its look-the-other-way attitude. It became a go-to spot for musicians in the 1980s and, in the 90s, became the place to descend on. In this fun history, Daniel Dylan-Wray spoke to those who remember (or perhaps don't) its hedonistic glory days. Read more
Reuters
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
Colbert is latest casualty of late-night TV's fade-out
LOS ANGELES, July 19 (Reuters) - Late-night television had been fighting for its survival even before 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' was canceled this week. The announced end of one of the most popular broadcast late-night shows, days after host Stephen Colbert accused the network owner of bribing President Donald Trump to approve a merger, drew cries of political foul play from liberal politicians, artists and entertainers. "Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late-night host, slams the deal. Days later, he's fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO," Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent, wrote on X. CBS executives said in a statement that dropping the show was "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." Whether or not politics were at play, the late-night format has been struggling for years, as viewers increasingly cut the cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger viewers, in particular, are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok, leaving smaller, aging TV audiences and declining ad revenues. Americans used to religiously turn on Johnny Carson or Jay Leno before bed, but nowadays many fans prefer to watch quick clips on social media at their convenience. Advertising revenue for Colbert's show has dropped 40% since 2018 - the financial reality that CBS said prompted the decision to end 'The Late Show' in May 2026. One former TV network executive said the program was a casualty of the fading economics of broadcast television. Fifteen years ago, a popular late-night show like 'The Tonight Show' could earn $100 million a year, the executive said. Recently, though, 'The Late Show' has been losing $40 million a year, said a person briefed on the matter. The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2 million last year from $121.1 million in 2018, according to ad tracking firm Guideline. Ratings for Colbert's show peaked at 3.1 million viewers on average during the 2017-18 season, according to Nielsen data. For the season that ended in May, the show's audience averaged 1.9 million. Comedians like Colbert followed their younger audiences online, with the network releasing clips to YouTube or TikTok. But digital advertising did not make up for the lost TV ad revenue, the source with knowledge of the matter said. The TV executive said reruns of a hit prime-time show like 'Tracker' would leave CBS with 'limited costs, and the ratings could even go up." "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is just the latest casualty of the collapse of one of television's most durable formats. When 'The Late Late Show' host James Corden left in 2023, CBS opted not to hire a replacement. The network also canceled 'After Midnight' this year, after host Taylor Tomlinson chose to return to full-time stand-up comedy. But the end came at a politically sensitive time. Paramount Global (PARA.O), opens new tab, the parent company of CBS, is seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. This month Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over a "60 Minutes" interview with his 2024 Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris. Colbert called the payment 'a big fat bribe' two days before he was told his show was canceled. Many in the entertainment industry and Democratic politicians have called for probes into the decision, including the Writers Guild of America and Senator Edward Markey, who asked Paramount Chair Shari Redstone whether the Trump administration had pressured the company. Paramount has the right to fire Colbert, including for his political positions, Markey said, but 'if the Trump administration is using its regulatory authority to influence or otherwise pressure your company's editorial decisions, the public deserves to know.' A spokesperson for Redstone could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday night. "It's a completely new world that artists and writers and journalists are living in, and it's scary," said Tom Nunan, a veteran film and TV producer who is co-head of the producers program at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. "When the news came in about Colbert, we were shocked but not surprised."
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Six great reads: sports bros, London's most rock'n'roll hotel and Tetris-like architecture
'Today's sports broadcast world,' wrote Aaron Timms in this fascinating exploration of the sports-based manosphere, 'runs according to a new set of rules, in which 'respectable' TV and the demimonde of sports podcasts, streaming, and shitposting increasingly intersect: all engagement is good engagement, and the best type of filter is no filter. Whatever faint norms of decorum constrained earlier generations of professional sports talkers have faded completely. There's a reciprocal flow of testosterone and ideas between these shows, the world of sports, social media and real life. A handful of subjects and themes recur: veneration of the military, glorification of strength and traditional 'male' values, celebration of gambling, the denigration of women and anything thought to represent 'woke' culture.' Read more A new architectural guidebook was written as a love letter to the Ukrainian city – then Russia started bombing it. How will this home to Tetris-like offices and daring curved cinemas be rebuilt, asked the Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright. If you liked this piece, you might also be interested in Charlotte Higgins's feature on the ghost museums of Ukraine. Read more One of the giants of British media, Street-Porter is a regular on Loose Women, a former TV executive, newspaper editor and author – and about to launch a one-woman stage show. Before she dashed out of the restaurant where they met for lunch, she told Simon Hattenstone about love, regrets and her fury with her late mother. Read more Nearly seven years ago, Emmanuel Carrère travelled on the presidential plane with Emmanuel Macron, to profile him for the Guardian. It was at the start of his first term in office, and everything seemed to be going well for him. Now, Carrère wrote on Tuesday, hating Macron is a national sport in France. For the long read, Carrère travelled once more with the French president, this time to Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, for the recent G7 conference most notable for Donald Trump's abrupt departure: 'With [Trump] gone, the tension subsided. We could breathe again but there was no denying that the game had lost some of its appeal. Even though the second day was no more than a half day it dragged on, which was all the crueller given that its star was Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Invited by the G7, he had travelled more than 3,000 miles just to see Trump and beg him once again not to completely abandon Ukraine, and Trump once again humiliated him, this time by leaving just before he arrived.' Read more On Monday, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services. Their story – of a woman born into extraordinary aristocratic privilege and her life with a violent convicted rapist – grimly fascinated Britain. For an extraordinary long read, Sophie Elmhirst spent months attending their retrial and chronicled the chaotic scenes as Gordon chose to defend himself and Marten pushed the patience of the presiding judge to its limits. Read more The Columbia hotel in west London was known for its cheap rooms, its bar's flexible opening hours, and its look-the-other-way attitude. It became a go-to spot for musicians in the 1980s and, in the 90s, became the place to descend on. In this fun history, Daniel Dylan-Wray spoke to those who remember (or perhaps don't) its hedonistic glory days. Read more
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kirk Gibson discusses leaving Detroit Tigers' TV booth in 2025
Kirk Gibson's tenure in the Detroit Tigers TV booth ended before the start of the 2025 MLB season. In mid-March, the Tigers announced that Gibson wouldn't return to the TV booth but would remain a part of the team's front office as a special assistant while working with his foundation to continue the fight against Parkinson's disease. It was a shocking announcement, as the 68-year-old former Tigers player spent the last 10 years on the broadcast. Now, for the first time, Gibson has finally gone public about leaving Detroit's TV booth, and it was intriguing. Kirk Gibson talks departure from the Detroit Tigers' TV booth Gibson spoke to The Detroit News about his departure from the Tigers' TV booth for the first time and admitted that it wasn't the right fit anymore. When asked if he missed being in the TV booth, Gibson's answer wasn't an easy 'yes or no.' 'I mean, I enjoyed some of the things, but I didn't fit,' Gibson told The Detroit News in an interview. 'All things considered, I did what was right … One thing I learned through many people, mentors of mine along the way, was to take the high road … going back to [Sparky Anderson]. He called me out when I was young and said, 'Can you take it!?' I said, 'Take what?' He said, 'Can you take it!?' I said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Can you take it?' … 'Yeah, bring it on, I can [expletive] take it.' He gave me many examples of taking it, just keeping your mouth shut for the team.' Gibson was initially announced to be in the Tigers' booth alongside play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti and other analysts. Andy Dirks and Dan Petry have taken most of the games through the All-Star break, but it's unclear how much Gibson would've been in the booth if he stayed. 'Things change over time, you know?' Gibson told The Detroit News. 'You get older, you've gotta change if you're going to be partners. You've gotta change if you're going to make it work. I'll just leave it at that.' Benetti and Dirks/Petry spoil Detroit fans, but Gibson's voice and charisma in Comerica Park are missed. Gibson has been a fixture of the Tigers' on-air commentary for over one decade, but it wasn't the right fit anymore. Times may have changed, but Detroit's love for Gibson, and vice versa, will never go Headlines '1 Percent Chance': Pirates Reporter Shares Bleak Take on Paul Skenes Extension Prospects Yankees Expected 'To Get After It' Before Trade Deadline: 6 Blockbuster Trade Targets, Including Chris Sale Top MLB reporter: Teams Will 'Laugh At' Luis Robert Jr. If He Makes This Demand Did Kyle Schwarber's All-Star Game Heroics Drive Up His Price With Free Agency Looming?
