Colbert’s Ouster Was Just Another Late-Night Death Rattle

Opinion|Colbert’s Ouster Was Just Another Late-Night Death Rattle

It would appear, at first glance, that there are two intertwined strands of logic to the abrupt canceling of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show by the brass at Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS.

On the one hand, there’s an economic reality: “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” employs roughly 200 people, costs $100 million annually to produce and was reportedly losing $40 million a year. That’s a lot for a struggling television network to absorb in an era of rapidly declining fortunes. In 2024, Paramount’s broadcast and cable television business had an operating income of about $4.3 billion, down roughly 9 percent from the $4.8 billion it made the year before. The trajectory for network television has been going in only one direction, and not just at Paramount. Why else is Comcast spinning off a significant portion of its cable television networks and Warner Bros. Discovery splitting its streaming and studio from much of its television business?

Then there’s the juicy conspiracy theory: that Paramount is caught in a realpolitik vortex involving Donald Trump’s F.C.C., which has yet to approve Paramount’s $8 billion recapitalization deal. In this telling, jettisoning the man who has made Mr. Trump the brunt of his late-night jokes for years would be a small price to pay for closing what might be a much more lucrative deal. Mr. Colbert, it must be said, hasn’t been shy about criticizing the network; last week, he unabashedly called Paramount’s $16 million payment to the Trump presidential library “a big fat bribe.” He might have been joking, but still.

The political overtones of the Colbert ouster kicked up a notch when Mr. Trump proclaimed on social media: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.” Mr. Colbert responded to that taunt on air, by telling Mr. Trump what he could do, using an expletive, to himself. The contretemps became even more political when Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden jumped into the fray with a pointed letter to David Ellison, the chief executive of Skydance Media, which is being merged into Paramount as part of the pending deal.

They wrote that the series of events raises “fresh questions about corruption in the Trump administration and President Trump’s willingness to accept payments from entities with significant policy interests before agencies he controls.”

Despite the atrocious timing of CBS’s announcement, I suspect Mr. Colbert’s demise had more to do with the increasingly challenging economics of traditional late-night television than it did with bending the knee, yet again, to the Trump administration. After all, why would Paramount keep Mr. Colbert on the air for another 10 months or so if he was meant to be a sacrificial lamb? (His unrenewed contract ends in May.) He’d be removed immediately if that were the case. Instead, until his show ends, he’ll have free rein to bash Mr. Trump every night if he’s so inclined. I’m sure he’ll do just that.