The Late "Late Show"

CBS canceled Stephen Colbert.

Colbert, the host of "The Late Show," will no longer deliver his witty, barbed comments about Donald Trump on late-night television.  It's not just Colbert that's going off the air; "The Late Show" is ending completely once Colbert is gone.

Almost as soon as the news came down, many observers quickly accused CBS, which infamously settled with Trump over a bogus lawsuit involving Kamala Harris's "60 Minutes" interview before its parent company completed a lucrative merger, of bending the knee to Trump to prevent him from further trying to extort the network by canceling Colbert.  Just like when CBS axed "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1969 to appease President Richard Nixon, who was always offended by les freres Smothers' jokes about him and their opposition to the war in Vietnam.  "We weren't canceled," the late Tom Smothers said, "we were fired!"  

Good point - if it were true.  But the actual truth is that CBS's continued endeavor in late-night programming was a drain on the network.  Colbert's ratings, as MSNBC host-turned-podcaster Keith Olbermann pointed out, had been in decline for years and the show was generating less revenue for CBS as more young people - the demographic most advertisers aim at - were tuning out and opting for streaming and the like.  Given that, it's only a matter of time before the two Jimmys - Fallon at NBC and Kimmel at ABC - follow suit.

Besides, if Colbert were being canceled because of Trump, why is he being allowed to continue on TV until his contract expires - in May 2026?  If Colbert is being given ten months to say anything he wants to about Trump, then the idea of him getting fired for making fun of Trump doesn't hold water.

Some reporters do believe this has to do with Trump.  Jonathan Alter told Al Franken on Franken's podcast that he personally believes Colbert is being let go because he is constantly making fun of Trump and the MAGA movement. What Alter, a friend of Colbert's and like Colbert a resident of Montclair, New Jersey, did not mention was that his (Alter's) wife is a booking agent for Colbert's show. 

So much for full disclosure.

Stephen Colbert isn't really going anywhere.  This time next year, he'll likely have a podcast of his own in which he'll continue to ridicule Trump.  Meanwhile, CBS will for the first time since 1993 have no late-night programming at 11:35 PM Eastern, freeing the local CBS stations to go back to airing sports-extra report shows or maybe some old movies.  Or maybe CBS will bring back older reruns of current shows that haven't had any earlier episodes syndicated yet, a practice both CBS and ABC employed back in the seventies when Johnny Carson was at his peak.  I have no idea what will happen to the Ed Sullivan Theater, but chances are CBS will sell it to some young hotshot who doesn't know who Ed Sullivan was and who will likely convert it into a sports bar.