Colbert Cancelled

And the long, slow death of late night comedy...

(Mourning another murdered punchline…)

“I think it would be a fatal mistake to use my show as a platform for controversial issues. I'm an entertainer, not a commentator. If you're a comedian your job is to make people laugh.”

~ Johnny Carson, RIP

Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Lisbon, Portugal...

Tune up those tiny violins, dear reader, for a weary world hangs its head in mourning. Here’s CNN, barely choking back the tears:

CBS is ending ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ next year

In a shocking move, CBS is ending “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year, and apparently exiting the late-night television business altogether.

The network, citing financial pressures, said the cancellation will take effect in May 2026, the normal end of the broadcast TV season.

The decision is particularly surprising because “The Late Show” is typically the highest-rated show in late-night. And the timing is bound to raise questions because it comes just two weeks after the parent company of CBS, Paramount, settled a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News.

It’s true, gentle souls. “Shocking,” even. The end of an era is indeed upon us. And so, as is only to be expected during such irremediable moments of public grief and anger, we turn to our moral superiors for strength and guidance:

Hollywood celebrities, hear our prayers!

Bad Actors

First up, here’s what someone called Adam Scott, who acts on a show called, appropriately enough, Severance, had to say:

“Love you Stephen. This is absolute [BS], and I for one am looking forward to the next 10 months of shows. ✊😡💔”

Truly brave words.

Here’s alleged “actress” Rachel Zegler, fresh off the back of woke-bombing the Disney classic, Snow White, into a million little box office pieces.

“I am extremely sad. I adore you, Stephen.”

Deep, Ms. Zegler. So. Very. Deep.

And lo, what performative public fawn-a-thon would be complete without a word from establishment mouthpiece and Kamala Harris superfan, Ben Stiller?

“Sorry to hear @CBS is canceling one of the best shows they have,” tweeted the cringy actorvist, leaving the non-TV watchers among us to wonder what the rest of the network’s line-up must smell like if Colbert was, indeed, one of the “best shows they have.”

Then again, this is the same man who, focusing all his intellectual ponypower, once said of Kamala Harris:

“She's Indian, she's Black, she's everything. You can be more than one thing, it's incredible.”

And who elsewhere added, somewhat bizarrely:

“You know, I'm Jewish and Irish … I wish I was Black. Every white Jewish guy wishes he was Black. … get out there and vote and donate and take advantage.”

Truly, when it comes to profound proclamations, Stiller is like a man with a fork in a world full of soup.

Of course, it wasn’t only the dastardly denizens of Dante’s lesser-known 10th circle of hell – Celebrity – who weighed in on the long-overdue Colbert cancellation. Career politicians were, naturally, on deck to voice their special brand of collective (and apparently scripted) indignation.

Public Disservants

First up, California Democratic Senator, Adam Schiff:

Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled.

If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.

Then along came poor ol’ Elizabeth Warren, always miffed about something. Sharp as a ball of soap, the senator from Massachusetts is struggling to remain relevant in an age where professional victimhood no longer pays like it used to. The cancellation of an unfunny comedian is just the thing to ruffle her Cherokee headdress...

Stephen Colbert’s show was canceled three days after he called out Paramount, CBS’s parent company, for folding to Trump with a $16M settlement for a lawsuit that even they called “without merit."

People deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.

Democratic Congressperson Pramila Jayapal, soon slithered to action, posting a suspiciously similar (read: verbatim) message.

Stephen Colbert’s show was canceled three days after he called out Paramount, CBS’s parent company, for folding to Trump with a $16M settlement for a lawsuit that even they called “without merit."

People deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.

We’re glad to see the political caste were at least predictably in step, even if those steps were decidedly of the anserine variety. But what to make of the allegations themselves, that Colbert’s vanquishing was politically motivated? As an unfashionable free speech absolutist, we would be loath to see any voice censored, be they on the so-called “right” or the so-called “left,” for political purposes.

(Remind us sometime to tell you about our hasty exit from the United Arab Emirates, where we once penned an unfavorable screed against the ruling sheikh and his “merry band of sycophants,” an essay which found its way to publication in the UK and, through certain expat channels, landed on some unfriendly desks back in the kingdom, thereby obliging us to promptly exit the country, stage left...)

So, what’s all the hullabaloo over censorship, anyway? Fellow late night host, Bill Maher, is at least as much a critic of the president as Mr. Colbert – he was once sued by Trump over a low-hanging “Orange Man Bad” joke – and not only has Maher not been canceled... he was recently invited to the White House for a sit down dinner with the President.

Let us dig a little deeper, then...

Lose the Funny, Follow the Money

As astute readers will recall, President Trump recently settled a lawsuit with Paramount Global (CBS’s parent company) for $16 million. The settlement, which Colbert referred to as “a big bribe,” came after Trump alleged that CBS show, 60 Minutes, deceptively edited an interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris, in order to make her sound... rational coherent sober informed.

The editorial talent required to achieve such a mind-bending feat notwithstanding, few observers – including CBS itself – denies the substance of the allegation, even if they deem it “without merit.” In fact, you can see the unedited and edited versions for yourself (there are other snippets; this is merely a preview):

That the side who cried “deep fakes” when videos of a bumbling Joe Biden going AWOL were lighting up the Internet should defend such flagrant media manipulation, specifically designed to favor one candidate over another during the final stretch of a general election, is perhaps not surprising. The adolescent “Us” vs “Them” partisanship endemic in the American political parade demands just such rabid tribalism.

And yet, might there not be a simpler answer, one with a flat, cringey, mirthless punchline? One, in other words, worthy of Mr. Colbert himself?

(Remember this relentless, brow-beating attack on funny?)

During David Letterman’s tenure at the helm of The Late Show, from 2000-2014, the show averaged between 2.8–3.8 million viewers per episode. The franchise’s highest single-episode mark occurred during the Letterman days (a post–Super Bowl 21.1 million), while the highest regular-season weekly average came during Letterman’s final week (3.8 million).

(By way of fanatically impartial comparison, Jay Leno routinely pulled around 5 million viewers during the same era.)

Mr. Colbert’s panting run, by contrast, has witnessed a steady atrophying over the years. And it’s not only Colbert. Seth Meyers and the tiresome Jimmys have tanked their respective ships, too. See for yourself...

(Data from Vanity Fair, LateNighter, Cirkkus News and USTVDB; table made with ChatGPT)

Gee, who knew piping partisan politics into people’s homes night after night after night would eventually turn casual viewers so sour?

While Colbert’s ratings fell pretty consistently over 2024 (averaging ~2.57 million, down ~6.3% from 2023), conservative host, Greg Gutfeld, trended along the opposite trajectory (with ~2.76 million viewers last year, up ~30% from 2023).

This year’s numbers are even more striking. Gutfeld averaged 3.45 million viewers through the first six months of 2025 (up 31% year on year); while Colbert’s whines and wails managed just 2.4 million viewers (down 8% year on year).

Alas, where go the eyeballs, so go the advertising dollars. According to data analysis firm, Forward Pathway, ad revenue for late-night programming fell like a Colbert punchline in recent years, declining from over $800 million in 2014 to just $342 million by 2022.

When asked why he kept his nose out of politics, Johnny Carson once replied:

“Who cares what entertainers on the air think about international affairs? … They can hear all they want from people with reason to be respected as knowledgeable.”

In our present, downside-up world, where politicians act like circus clowns and so-called comedians pose as political experts, both would do well to heed Mr. Carson’s sage advice.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...

Cheers,

Joel Bowman

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