Stephen Colbert acknowledged the financial issues facing late night TV, but something about the format still “seems indispensable.”
Colbert is just a few months removed from CBS’ shock decision to cancel “The Late Show.” The late night TV staple is set to end its decades-long run in May 2026, and CBS called its cancellation in July “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” In an interview published Monday with GQ, Colbert spoke on the current state of the late night TV landscape.
“If there is a business reason for this, I know there’s been a change in ad rates since the strike, and I know that’s never really recovered from that. So that all makes sense to me,” Colbert said. “I also know that these late night shows are kind of like symphony orchestras. They need a certain amount of personnel to do them. You can’t really do a show in the Ed Sullivan Theater, 11:35 on CBS, with a band and sketches and field shoots and stuff like that, for the cost of a podcast.”
“If you look and say, ‘Oh look, this is what a podcast makes and this is what these shows make,’ then you’re keeping these shows on because you love the form. So to me, it seems indispensable as part of some American’s experience or daily experience,” Colbert explained. “But I can understand from a business point of view, they go, well, that is meaningless to me as someone who has to answer to a board of directors and investors.”
In the same interview, Colbert expressed continued shock and confusion over the end of “The Late Show,” which is set to conclude after having consistently sat atop the late night TV ratings field for nine straight years. As more and more viewers gravitate toward YouTube and podcasts for other, alternate forms of the traditional TV talk show format, the future of late night series like “The Tonight Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” remain in question.
Colbert, however, believes there is still worth in traditional late night talk shows. “There are fewer and fewer of what you would call third spaces in our life. Not your home, not your work, but some other place we get together,” the “Late Show” host offered. “These late night shows are for millions of Americans a third space to come together and think about the day.”
“We broadcast to a general audience. There’s no entrance fee, there’s no subscription. You don’t have to look for us except on channel five or wherever you are,” Colbert concluded. “We have a variety of different guests, a variety of different — it’s a variety show.”
Colbert also lightly touched on the rumors that CBS canceled “The Late Show” after Colbert called Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over his “60 Minutes” lawsuit a “big fat bribe” to ensure that Trump’s administration approved Paramount’s then-pending merger with Skydance Media.
“I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation — I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us — decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit,” Colbert said.
“It is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual,” he continued. “If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem.”
“You’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation. I have had a great relationship with CBS,” Colbert added. “It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this. We do budgets and everything like that. We’ve done cuts and stuff like that. So that’s why it was surprising to me, as I said, but I meant what I said [on air] the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit on it. They’ve been great partners.”
