Friday, 18 July 2025
Why CBS’s Cancellation of “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert” Stinks to Excessive Hell
Even again within the now-comparatively-sane Trump 1.0 administration, it appeared palpably true to me that the very best test towards Trump’s authoritarian instincts wasn’t authorized or Constitutional, however relatively cultural. The tradition of free speech, of having the ability to criticize — in no unsure phrases, with no held punches — anybody in authority is prime to the American mindset. It’s just like the opening of David Foster Wallace’s “This Is Water” 2005 graduation handle to Kenyon Faculty:
Greetings dad and mom and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class
of 2005. There are these two younger fish swimming alongside they usually
occur to satisfy an older fish swimming the opposite approach, who nods at
them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the 2 younger
fish swim on for a bit, after which ultimately certainly one of them appears to be like over
on the different and goes “What the hell is water?”This can be a commonplace requirement of US graduation speeches, the
deployment of didactic little parable-ish tales. The story factor
seems to be one of many higher, much less bullshitty conventions of
the style, however for those who’re apprehensive that I plan to current myself
right here because the sensible, older fish explaining what water is to you
youthful fish, please don’t be. I’m not the sensible previous fish. The
level of the fish story is merely that the obvious, vital
realities are sometimes those which can be hardest to see and discuss
about. Acknowledged as an English sentence, in fact, that is only a
banal platitude, however the reality is that within the daily trenches
of grownup existence, banal platitudes can have a life or loss of life
significance, or so I want to recommend to you on this dry and beautiful
morning.
In the best way that fish take water as a right, Individuals take true freedom of speech and freedom of the press as a right. It’s the tradition we have been born into, the air we breathe. And to my thoughts, the fiercest and simplest type of criticism — particularly political — is mockery. Mark Twain, America’s first nice (and maybe nonetheless biggest) humorist, mentioned, “In opposition to the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
Nobody in Russian media mocks Vladimir Putin, lest they discover themselves falling out certainly one of Russia’s easily-fallen-out-of home windows. Nobody in Chinese language media mocks Xi Jinping. Again in 2017 the CCP went so far as to censor pictures of Winnie the Pooh, as a result of Xi resembles Pooh so clearly, and folks naturally discover that amusing. Trump, clearly, has authoritarian instincts and wishes, however US media — print, net, podcasts, YouTube, social, and TV — has been replete with unrelenting mockery geared toward him. There’s no higher instance of that than late evening discuss reveals: Colbert on CBS, Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, Seth Meyers on NBC, Jon Stewart and his fellow hosts on The Each day Present at Comedy Central, John Oliver and Invoice Maher on HBO. Vociferous, unrelenting critics of Trump, all of them. (And it really works each methods: Greg Gutfield’s Gutfield! is a scores success at 10:00pm for Fox Information.)
That’s been one of many canaries I’ve been monitoring within the Trump 2.0 drift-into-authoritarianism coal mine. As long as Trump is getting skewered by comedians on main TV channels nightly, in some sense, we’re doing OK.
However whereas our Structure and cultural material defend our media from authorities interference, there’s no such safety from possession interference. Trump can’t dictate what a newspaper prints — confirmed once more, simply final evening, by The Wall Avenue Journal, which added vital gasoline to the Epstein hearth that’s rupturing MAGAland with a scoop on a grimy birthday letter Trump wrote to his pal Epstein in 2003, regardless of Trump attempting to quash the story by immediately calling Journal proprietor Rupert Murdoch. Trump can’t dictate who hosts late-night TV reveals or censor the jokes they inform, and we nonetheless appear removed from a world the place Jimmy Kimmel would possibly mysteriously “fall” from a excessive window.
However the homeowners, they will do what they need. Jeff Bezos kiboshed The Washington Publish’s already-written endorsement of Kamala Harris — on the cusp of the election — and torched the paper’s beforehand sterling fame of independence and journalistic integrity. Patrick Quickly-Shiong has executed related to the LA Instances.
CBS is owned by Paramount, and Paramount is managed by Sheri Redstone. Redstone has a deal to promote Paramount to Skydance, an organization managed by David Ellison (son of Oracle gazillionaire Larry Ellison) for $8 billion, however the deal wants approval from the FCC, and the FCC solutions to Trump. That’s why CBS settled a bullshit lawsuit by Trump towards 60 Minutes for $16 million. As former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft instructed Jon Stewart (righteously, on Paramount-owned Comedy Central) concerning the “settlement”: “They by no means mentioned, ‘We screwed up.’ They simply paid the cash. It was a shakedown, that’s what I name it. Some individuals name it extortion, that’s a authorized time period.”
The New York Publish reported two weeks in the past that the official settlement is barely half the deal, nevertheless:
Shari Redstone’s Paramount acquired an uncommon help to settle
its controversial lawsuit with President Trump, which ought to now
clear the best way for its long-awaited sale to unbiased studio
Skydance, On The Cash has realized.Skydance boss David Ellison, the son of Trump pal and
billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, stepped up and agreed
that when he takes management of the Tiffany Community, presently half
of Redstone’s flailing media empire, it can run between $15
million and $20 million of public service advertisements to advertise causes
supported by the president, a supply with data of the
negotiations mentioned.“There’s an anticipation of a mid-eight-figure sum that will probably be
allotted by the community to PSA ads and different broadcast
transmissions that assist conservative causes supported by
President Trump,” the supply mentioned.
It made no sense journalistically or financially for CBS to settle Trump’s lawsuit. 60 Minutes clearly did nothing ethically flawed, not to mention unlawful, with its modifying of Kamala Harris’s interview.1 It solely is sensible as a de facto payoff to Trump to assist safe approval of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount. Likewise with CBS’s choice not simply to half methods with Colbert as host, however to stop manufacturing of The Late Present totally. It makes no TV sense. The Late Present isn’t simply doing OK within the scores, it’s the highest present within the 11:30 timeslot. Right here’s Jed Rosenzweig, writing for LateNighter simply 4 days in the past:
Because the second quarter of 2025 wrapped, late-night’s pecking order
held principally regular — with The Late Present with Stephen Colbert
topping the 11:35 PM hour in complete viewers, and Late Night time with
Seth Meyers main at 12:37 AM throughout each key scores metrics.CBS’s Late Present was the one present among the many 9 tracked by
LateNighter to attract extra complete viewers in Q2 than it had within the
first quarter of 2025 — though simply barely, with the present
rising its viewers by 1% quarter over quarter. All instructed, the
Stephen Colbert-hosted present averaged 2.42 million viewers throughout
41 first-run episodes, comfortably outpacing ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel
Stay (1.77 million) and NBC’s The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy
Fallon (1.19 million). Within the advertiser-coveted 18–49 demo,
nevertheless, Kimmel surged forward with 220,000 viewers — his strongest
efficiency in a 12 months — edging out Colbert (219,000) and leaving
Fallon (at 157,000) in a distant third.At 12:37 AM, Late Night time With Seth Meyers continued its quiet
reign. The NBC mainstay averaged 900,000 complete viewers and
111,000 within the demo throughout 35 episodes — simply topping each
metrics within the late-late slot. ABC’s Nightline held second
place with 810,000 complete viewers and 108,000 within the demo, placing
it forward of CBS’s After Midnight, which ended its two-year run
in early June with a mean of 591,000 complete viewers and 89,000
within the 18–49 demo.
So Colbert’s Late Present is the highest-rated general, and successfully tied with Kimmel within the advertiser-coveted 18–49 demo.2 Like all of conventional TV, late evening viewership — and thus income — isn’t what it was. (For context, by way of the tip of the Nineteen Nineties and into the 2000s, Letterman and Leno every drew round 4–6 million viewers per evening. Johnny Carson averaged over 10 million viewers per evening within the Seventies and 80s.) CBS declaring in its announcement that “That is purely a monetary choice towards a difficult backdrop in late evening” is clear bullshit — and, in mild of its timing, additional pungent bullshit at that. Certainly the top-rated present in late evening isn’t simply a minimum of worthwhile, however nearly actually extra worthwhile than no matter CBS would possibly substitute it with in that point slot.
The TV business has all the time been obsessive about scores and obsessive about promoting income. I can’t recall the top-rated present in any class being cancelled. Once more, it makes no TV sense. It doesn’t cross the sniff take a look at. Again in December, concerning the Bezos-driven upheaval at The Washington Publish, I wrote a chunk titled “Journalism Requires Homeowners Dedicated to the Trigger”, which title type of says all of it. The one correct technique to run a critical newspaper is for the work and fame of the newspaper itself to the topmost precedence of everybody in management, proper as much as the proprietor. That’s simply clearly not true for Bezos. And a part of it too is that your complete enterprise of The Washington Publish simply doesn’t matter to Bezos. Jeff Bezos has a web value of round $230 billion. He purchased the Publish from its longtime homeowners, the Graham household (who have been homeowners dedicated to the trigger) in 2013 for simply $250 million. Financially, your complete Washington Publish Firm represents like one-thousandth of Bezos’s wealth. Trashing the paper’s fame and the belief of its readers meant much less to him than cozying as much as Trump for potential commerce coverage favors for Amazon and rocketry offers for Blue Origin.
It’s precisely the identical for David Ellison. His father, Larry Ellison, is even wealthier than Bezos, with Forbes estimating his value above $250 billion after latest Oracle inventory worth features. In regular instances, with a traditional US president (that’s to say, not crooked), and a traditional incoming purchaser of a serious tv community (that’s to say, involved with scores and advert income) it might be insane for the community to cancel the top-rated late evening present simply earlier than the deal is finalized. However David Ellison doesn’t give a shit how a lot cash CBS makes at 11:30 and doesn’t care in regards to the three-decade legacy of The Late Present or the storied historical past of the theater during which it’s produced every evening. Cancelling this explicit hit present isn’t poison to the deal for Skydance to purchase Paramount — it’s a sweetener. I missed this on the time, however Oliver Darcy, media reporter extraordinaire, known as it at Standing (paywalled, alas) simply over per week in the past:
Jon Stewart opened Monday’s episode of The Each day Present not
mincing phrases, calling Paramount’s settlement with Donald Trump
“shameful.” Simply as he was digging in, a faux Arby’s advert instantly
appeared on display, as if to chop him off mid-rant for criticizing
Comedy Central’s dad or mum firm. “Did they? Son of a bitch!”
Stewart exclaimed, enjoying together with the bit — but nodding to a
deeper concern that his commentary would possibly quickly be silenced amid all
the company upheaval.Later within the episode, Stewart continued to needle Paramount,
sitting down with former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft
for a candid and unsparing dialog. Kroft described the
settlement in clear phrases: “It was a shakedown.” Inside “The Each day
Present,” I’m instructed staffers have taken satisfaction that Stewart confirmed as soon as
once more he’s prepared to face as much as highly effective pursuits, even when it
probably dangers his future employment. And whereas they might not
but realize it, inside sure energy circles, there’s an open
query: How for much longer will Stewart have this platform?Certainly, the fact is that the bottom underneath not solely Stewart, however
additionally Stephen Colbert, is shifting quick. Skydance, led by Larry and
David Ellison, now believes its merger with Paramount will shut
within the subsequent a number of weeks, I’m instructed. A lot of the eye has
targeted on how the Ellisons will reshape 60 Minutes and CBS
Information. We first reported that David Ellison met with Bari Weiss
a few potential position at CBS Information, and it’s clear the Ellisons
need to rid the community of what they see as a liberal taint. However
little has been mentioned in regards to the futures of Colbert and Stewart, who
have been two of Trump’s most constant comedic antagonists,
underneath the brand new company management. […]As one media insider put it to me this week, “What higher reward
might [the Ellisons] give Trump than to do away with Colbert and
Stewart?”
The primary shoe dropped at CBS final evening. TV-wise, it’d be loopy for Paramount to drop Jon Stewart too. However dropping Colbert is even crazier, they usually already did that. It’s not tyranny or the specter of state violence that’s taking The Late Present With Stephen Colbert off the air, however relatively oligarchy and unchecked cronyism and corruption. The breathtaking abdication we’re seeing at CBS — first information with 60 Minutes, now commentary and humor with The Late Present — are indicators of a decidedly American descent into curse-not-the-king mass media acquiescence to Trump’s authoritarian hostility to criticism and dissent.
Postscript
Right here’s Trump on his weblog this morning, heralding the information along with his standard grace, equanimity, and factual accuracy:
I completely love that Colbert’ [sic] obtained fired. His expertise was even
lower than his scores. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is subsequent. Has even much less
expertise than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is healthier than all of them
mixed, together with the Moron on NBC who ruined the as soon as nice
Tonight Present.
I’ll admit that it’s form of humorous that he didn’t even deign to deal with Fallon by identify, particularly since Fallon is the one who did probably the most to normalize Trump’s aberrant candidacy in 2016.
