The Late Show & Last Week Tonight

[Anoat]

Well no surprise, Trump already saying Kimmel and Fallon are next and wants them replaced with Gutfeld

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/tru...xt-1236464640/

[Tyrath]

Well Gutfeld is trying to reclaim the word Nazi so doesn't surprise me Trump wants him

[Bombur]

I’m 100% confident that ending the Late Show was part of Trump’s agreement with Paramount. The merger ending the Late Show though is gonna tank the ratings for the local news station affiliates on CBS. Finically this a bad decision.

[Krandor]

All of the late shows across ABC/NBC/CBS combined barely crack 600k viewers in the key demo for live+7.

Appeasing Trump may be the primary factor for it but they're not going to suffer any kind of big financial hardship for it.

[Andalusian girls]

they are coward sons of bitches

[Anoat]

https://twitter.com/NadineBabu/statu...07616654950884

[Krandor]

Paramount reportedly lost 40 million dollars on the show in 2024 alone and it's been losing money for years.

They were probably just looking for an excuse to cancel it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/b...-show-cbs.html

(The 40 million figure isn't mentioned in that article but I've seen it referenced in other places and Colbert himself brought it up last night)

[6souls]

Paramount reportedly lost 40 million dollars on the show in 2024 alone and it's been losing money for years.

They were probably just looking for an excuse to cancel it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/b...-show-cbs.html

(The 40 million figure isn't mentioned in that article but I've seen it referenced in other places and Colbert himself brought it up last night)

Lost $40M on a show, but reported a revenue of $28.72B for the fiscal year.

[Krandor]

Revenue =/= Profit

A quick Google says Paramount had a net loss of 6.19 billion in 2024 and 6.08 billion in 2023

[Tyrath]

The 40m figure came from WSJ I think so take that with a grain of salt probably

[Salodin]

I've yet to see a single legitimate source for that $40mil number, but it's also possible it's factual.

But I also dislike late nite talk shows so idc lol

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[Gabai]

Revenue =/= Profit

A quick Google says Paramount had a net loss of 6.19 billion in 2024 and 6.08 billion in 2023

An interesting thing to note about that 6B loss is that it is largely due to an impairment, which is a non cash expense that is made to the company’s income statement to reflect a reduction on their assets on the balance sheet. Essentially, it is a signal from Paramount to its shareholders that they had previously overvalued some of their assets, which from a cursory reading of their 10-k is most certainly related to CBS, its programming, and its future potential revenue generation.

Paramount all in all did have a cash position increase between 2023 and 2024 of about 200MM, which means their operations remain somewhat profitable, but for the second year in a row they have taken a pretty massive impairment, which signals weakness in either the structural makeup of the company and its ability to make money over time, and/or a significant shift in how the industry as a whole is generating revenue, obviously due to the changing consumer habits of streaming vs cable.

I am no industry expert in tv so someone else can probably talk to that much more intelligently, but from a financial and strategic perspective, I would expect them to keep downsizing their content and cut their losers; which is to echo what someone else mentioned earlier, they were more than likely ready to cancel the late show anyway. The timing and mechanism, however, is probably one of the absolute worst ways they could have gone about it, unless they found some potential benefit from the public shaming of Colbert. Which, as I type this out, with this administration, is likely.

[Krandor]

I've yet to see a single legitimate source for that $40mil number, but it's also possible it's factual.

But I also dislike late nite talk shows so idc lol

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It's hard to keep track these days but I'm pretty sure Reuters is a trustworthy source.

https://www.reuters.com/business/med...ut-2025-07-19/

The key part of that article is that advertising revenue has dropped 40% since 2018, and ad revenue is the driving force of broadcast television.

[Salodin]

It's hard to keep track these days but I'm pretty sure Reuters is a trustworthy source.

https://www.reuters.com/business/med...ut-2025-07-19/

The key part of that article is that advertising revenue has dropped 40% since 2018, and ad revenue is the driving force 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.

IDK man, self-admitted heresay from an unnamed source about publicly disclosed financials isn't as strong as you think it is. Literally no one is willing to have their name attached to the "Colbert's show lost $40mil" tagline? A multi-billion dollar company certainly wouldn't bald-face lie to better their position.../s

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[Krandor]

So Reuters not legitimate because you don't like what the article says, gotcha.

[Roranora]

But I also dislike late nite talk shows so idc lol

tell me you're sad about public radio though

[Meresgi]

It's pretty clear they didn't want Trump interfering with their merger shit going on, and just decided to kill 2 birds with one stone since they wanted to cancel Late Show as well. They just made themselves look like feckless cowards though and created a fun little PR fiasco, but the CEO and shareholders won't give a shit. They can make bank on the merger, get their golden parachutes and bail out when Paramount keeps providing shit entertainment and streaming services and nothing of value to its customers while trying to charge them to even be in the same room as someone who owns their product.

[Anoat]

Paramount apparently had $1.5 billion to sign a deal with Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the rights to South Park so doesn’t sound like money was a big issue for them

[Dimmauk]

What CBS shows are the money makers? Colbert and the CBS morning shows are the only things I watch.

[Anoat]

A reality that advertisers are finally starting to admit that, outside live sports, traditional TV is dead and was killed by streaming.

The median age for traditional television watchers (excluding live sports), is 70+.