Shari Redstone does not see a bright future for late night. Speaking Thursday at Axios’ Media Trends Live event, the former Paramount Global chair said that shows like CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” were “financially not viable” and “it had been that way for a long time.”
“I can tell you that we had been looking at late night,” she said of CBS and its parent company’s decision to stop airing “The Late Show” in May 2026. “It was financially not viable, it had been that way for a long time. We had made a decision months prior to the announcement that we were not going to be going forward with that show. I love Stephen. He does a great job, but we really needed to be in a financially valuable business. And you saw we did that with James Corden as well.”
Her comments came in conversation with Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer at the live event, just as late night TV came under heightened scrutiny yet again amid ABC’s indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. While sources at Disney have told TheWrap that the production pause is not intended to be a cancellation, whether or not the Disney-owned network’s late night host returns remains to be seen.
Watch Redstone’s appearance at the Axios event below:
Redstone was asked in the 15-minute interview about ABC taking Kimmel’s late night show off the air for saying in Monday’s broadcast that Trump and his supporters were trying “desperately” to characterize the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk as “anything other than one of them.”
“I don’t know all of the facts around the decision that was made,” Redstone said. “I don’t have the history, I don’t have the context, so I’m certainly not going to speak to why ABC made the decision, or whether it – not because of Trump or because of any other reasons. But I do think we all need to be thoughtful of the content we’re putting on air, given the division that exists in this country. And that’s not a direct reflection on Kimmel. That’s just a much broader reflection on the world we’re living in.”
The executive, who just joined Israeli studio Sipur as chair of the board this week, was also hopeful for the future of CBS News under Paramount’s new owner David Ellison. Speaking to talks of Ellison’s potential acquisition of Bari Weiss’ The Free Press, Redstone said Weiss would be “a good voice” for the network.
“I know there’s been talk about Bari, and I think she would be a good voice, so I’m hopeful,” she said. “I’m not going to go into it from a business standpoint, but I do think she’s a voice that would bring a different perspective. And then I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to give your audience credit for being smart enough to hear different points of view and being able to narrow down on the facts.”
Redstone added: “We’ve gotten to the point where news needs to be more balanced. It needs to be fact-based. I think that people’s opinions are getting confused with the facts, and I think we still have the same challenge we had before, which is we need more accountability, we need more standards, we need checks and balances, and we have to go back to a place where facts are what the news is about, and opinions are not facts. And by the way, you can have opinions, but then you need to have people with different opinions and different sides, so people can hear everything.”
Weiss’ The Free Press has reportedly been eyed by Paramount for $200 million, but an individual with knowledge told TheWrap earlier this month the sale price was expected to be lower than that. If the publication is acquired, it is likely Weiss would be put in a leadership role at CBS News, TheWrap previously reported.
