With “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” set to end in May 2026, the future of the historic Ed Sullivan Theater — where Colbert’s show is taped — remains up in the air.
Paramount’s new leadership has not announced a replacement for the late night franchise’s time slot. They’ve also signaled they would review the company’s real estate portfolio as they look to find more than the original $2 billion target in merger cost savings. (Colbert himself has joked that the building would get turned into a self-storage facility.)
Given the space’s landmark status and previous uses for late night talk shows, game shows and other television and radio productions over its 98-year-long history, it’s not entirely out of the question that Paramount CEO David Ellison and his team would keep it and find another use for the space and its 13-story office building. But real estate and industry experts told TheWrap they could also explore a potential sale, predicting it could fetch as much as $90 million — a rounding error in the company’s synergy goals.
Whatever happens to the Ed Sullivan, it would mark just the latest chapter in a topsy-turvy history that includes a transformation from a Broadway theater to a TV studio, numerous owners and multiple famed tenants, from David Letterman to the namesake host of one of television’s longest-running variety shows. A New York institution and historical landmark, the property would be a prestige purchase for the right buyer willing to deal with the headaches of potential renovation costs.
An individual close to Madison Square Garden Entertainment executive chairman and CEO James Dolan told TheWrap he would be interested in the Ed Sullivan Theater if Paramount looks to sell. Other potential buyers who have previously expressed interest over the years include Broadway theater owners The Nederlander and Shubert Organizations. Experts also said the space would be a good fit for Broadway theater owner ATG Entertainment or commercial real estate developers like SL Green Realty, Vornado Realty Trust, Tishman Speyer or Brookfield Properties.
“My gut is eventually [Paramount is] going to say they don’t need it if the late night format is heading towards the wayside with streaming and everything else,” Todd Drowlette, a commercial real estate broker and creator and star of A&E’s “The Real Estate Commission,” told TheWrap.
Representatives for Paramount and the Shubert Organization declined to comment. Representatives for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the Nederlander Organization, ATG Entertainment Group, SL Green Realty, Vornado, Tishman Speyer and Brookfield Properties did not return TheWrap’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Ed Sullivan options
Per New York City property tax records, the Ed Sullivan has a market value of $17.4 million as of 2025. But experts told TheWrap it could be worth much more, given its history and landmark status. Drowlette said the building’s “unemotional fair market value” is probably in the $30 million to $40 million range.
Meanwhile, Qualia Legacy Advisors managing director and former CBS programming executive Aaron Meyerson told TheWrap the building could potentially fetch as much as $80 million based on its landmark status, with upside approaching $90 million if a “trophy buyer” steps in.
Former CBS executive Ed Grebow, who led the team that negotiated the $4 million purchase and oversaw a 12-week renovation to turn the Ed Sullivan into a suitable home for Letterman, told TheWrap that while he expects Paramount to try and sell the building, there’s a “very limited pool” of buyers that would want it.
“The companies that would have been logical buyers of the Ed Sullivan Theater 10 years ago no longer want to invest in facilities or be in the studio rental business,” he said. “The theater is expensive to maintain and finding a full time tenant that can afford to rent it will be difficult. But it is a great studio for the right project.”
Experts said that the most likely buyer would be a joint venture between a Broadway theater owner and a real estate developer. A Broadway theater makes sense, but in order to get that designation, the Ed Sullivan would need to be renovated to have 500 or more seats, up from its current 370.
Due to its interior landmark designation, any physical changes made to its inner and outer lobby, auditorium, stage, staircase leading to the balcony and balcony floor interior would require approval by the Landmark Preservation Commission. While not impossible, Drowlette warned the renovation costs to transform the theater back into a Broadway house would be “astronomical.”
Drowlette and Meyerson also didn’t rule out the possibility of a deep-pocketed tech or entertainment player like Apple, Amazon or Netflix wanting a long-term lease. In 2019, Netflix bought and upgraded Manhattan’s Paris Theater, which was reopened for screenings and special events in 2023.
Former IFC and Sundance Channel head Evan Shapiro told TheWrap the Ed Sullivan could also be a good fit for Disney or Comcast/NBCUniversal, citing their involvement with Broadway productions and the former’s restoration of the New Amsterdam Theatre, but acknowledged that neither company would want to take on more debt.
Amazon and Comcast declined to comment. Representatives for Netflix, Disney and Apple did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
From Broadway theatre to New York landmark
Ellison is just the latest owner of the Ed Sullivan Theater, which has changed hands multiple times over the course of its decades-long history.
First opened in 1927 and designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, the Ed Sullivan Theater was originally known as Hammerstein’s Theater — a tribute to the German-born theater impresario and composer Oscar Hammerstein I from his son Arthur. It originated as a 1,500-seat venue for Broadway shows, including “Golden Dawn” starring Cary Grant, “Good Boy,” “Sweet Adeline,” “Luana” and “Ballyhoo.”
Arthur would use the majority of around $3 million in profits he netted from the 1925 presentation of the operetta “Rose Marie” to build it. He spared no expense, covering the floors with marble and Czechoslovakian rugs that were offset by gold and colored mosaic vaults. The auditorium walls also had 10 stained glass panels depicting scenes from his father’s greatest operas and he would install a $50,000 pipe organ in the center of a retractable orchestra pit.
“It represents more than bricks and mortar – it represents the affection I had for my father and the idea I had for years to show the pride I had in his memory and his name by building the finest possible theatre as a memorial — the sort of house he would have proud himself to have built,” Arthur told the New York Times in a 1931 interview.
By the 1930s, Arthur filed for bankruptcy and Hammerstein’s Theatre would be sold at auction. Over the years, the theater would undergo various renovations and name changes, including Billy Rose Music Hall, Manhattan Music Hall and the Manhattan Theatre. Between 1931 and 1936, the theater hosted productions including “Free for All,” “East Wind” and “Help Yourself.”
The CBS era
In 1936, CBS acquired the lease and used the space for radio broadcasts. By 1949, it was converted into a functioning TV studio known as CBS Studio 50, which would go on to house productions including “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “The Merv Griffin Show,” “What’s My Line?,” “Password” and “Toast of the Town,” which later became “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
The “Ed Sullivan Show” ran for 23 years on CBS from 1948 to 1971 and is one of the longest-running primetime variety shows in television history, with guests including Dean Martin, Elvis Presley and the Beatles, among others. The theater would be renamed after the host following the show’s 20th anniversary in 1967.
In 1981, the Ed Sullivan Theater changed ownership yet again, with Reeves Entertainment taking over and operating Teletape Studios out of it, housing productions like the sitcom “Kate and Allie,” which aired on CBS from 1984 to 1989. A year later, the Landmark Preservation Commission began considering the Ed Sullivan Theater for an official New York City landmark designation and it would become an interior landmark in 1988.
By 1993, the Ed Sullivan Theater was owned by the Boston-based firm Winthrop Financial Associates. Director and producer David Niles and his 1125 Productions signed a lease in 1989 for the building to house his HDTV studio and a Broadway show “Dreamtime,” but he would eventually default on the lease and was $600,000 in arrears.
Brian Ezratty, a commercial real estate agent for Eastern Consolidated who was hired to sell the building, received significant interest from promoter Ron Delsner and theater owners including the Nederlander Organization. But then, he learned that David Letterman was considering a move from NBC to CBS.
“I read the paper one morning and I saw Letterman was talking to CBS and I called the guys there and I said, ‘I have the perfect spot for them.’ And they were like, ‘Well, you can’t believe everything you read in the paper’,” Ezratty, who now serves as vice chairman of investment sales at Newmark, told TheWrap. “Long story short, they were interested.”
Ezratty quickly befriended Niles to gain access to the theater to show Letterman, who was brought in to see it in the middle of the night. A few weeks later, Niles was moved to a new space and CBS and Ezratty quickly negotiated and signed a deal —- which earned the latter the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” award.
“They didn’t want anyone to know that he was looking at it. He didn’t want anyone to know. He gave the thumbs up and we quickly made a deal after that. We had to move quickly, because it was February and they were going to open the show in August,” Ezratty said. “We literally signed a contract in two days. I remember being in Fried Frank’s office until 12, one in the morning trying to get it done.”
With the deal done, CBS still needed to make necessary repairs to the Ed Sullivan before Letterman could move in. They hired architect James Stewart Polshek, whose firm had restored Carnegie Hall, to oversee the renovation, which included pumping out a stream of water that was running through the basement of the building and removing concrete-filled pipes known as lolly columns, which were installed when Ed Sullivan brought in circus acts with elephants.
“There was barely any electricity. There was no heat. You didn’t want to go to the bathroom. It was really in run down condition, but we knew it had the potential,” Ezratty said. “CBS did an amazing job putting it back together and really making a special place out of it again.”
When Letterman eventually decided to step down, New York State gave CBS $16 million, including $11 million in performance-based Excelsior tax credits and $5 million to renovate the theater and keep the show and 200 jobs in New York. Stephen Colbert officially took over from Letterman in 2015.
Ten years later, CBS announced it would end The Late Show in May 2026 with a replacement for the timeslot yet to be determined.
Though Colbert was a harsh critic of Paramount’s $16 million legal settlement with President Donald Trump, calling it a “big fat bribe” to secure regulatory approval of its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, the network has argued that move is “purely financial” as the viewership and economics of late night have declined.
During an August press conference, Paramount’s TV/Media chair George Cheeks told reporters the show’s losses were in “the tens of millions of dollars” and that the timing of the cancellation was due to Colbert’s three-year contract coming up for renewal. Cheeks declined to say what would fill the “Late Show’s” time slot, noting it’s “too early to speculate.”
With Colbert still there until May, it’s likely too early to speculate about the Ed Sullivan either. Morningstar Research analyst Matthew Dolgin told TheWrap that while selling the building could make sense, the value of the theater is “unlikely to be material” for Paramount and that the company would be better off retaining the option to use it in the future.
In addition to “The Late Show,” CBS has previously used The Ed Sullivan Theater for the online concert series “Live from Letterman” as well as for “CBS This Morning,” a panel discussion celebrating 50 years of The Beatles hosted by Anthony Mason in 2014 and finales for the CBS reality show “Survivor.”
Andy Goldman, a former vice president of program strategy and planning at HBO, said he could see Paramount keeping the Ed Sullivan and using it for live theatrical productions based on their IP. Back in 2017, Nickelodeon co-produced “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” which opened at the Palace Theatre in 2017. It now streams on Paramount+ after closing in 2018.
Goldman believes it could be a way for Ellison and Paramount to breathe new life into a key piece of its history.
“Ellison seems to be somebody who is embracing the old and the new in lockstep,” Goldman said. “At the end of the day, they need to make money and they need to show that they’re new. You can show you’re new by embracing the old but putting a fresh spin on it.”
