CBS ending “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is more than just a financial loss - "CBS brass say they pulled the plug on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” because of its punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year — and claim politics had nothing to do with it... scathing jokes at the expense of CBS brass wasn’t the problem, according to insiders. Instead, the network’s bosses could no longer stomach the fact that Colbert has been plagued with an increasingly dire shortage of advertisers. That’s despite Colbert’s No, 1 ratings in his time slot and his status as a key face for the Tiffany Network. In the end, Paramount’s co-CEO George Cheeks decided to kill the show, sources said. “Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” said a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision. “Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”... despite Ellison’s Trump ties, sources said Skydance and its partners at Redbird Capital — the private equity firm that will help run CBS once the deal is cleared — only heard the news of the show’s impending cancellation just before it was announced late Thursday. “Skydance had nothing to do with this,” one person close to the decision said. “Colbert loses $40 million to $50 million a year, so George Cheeks just decided to pull the plug.” The show’s dominance in its time slot belies sharp declines in viewership as younger viewers move away from traditional TV. “The Late Show” boasts nearly 2 million total viewers and 200,000 viewers in the key 25-54 “demo” — making it No. 1 in its time slot. Nevertheless, that’s a sharp decline versus the numbers it racked up in its heyday. The ad data firm Guideline estimates that CBS’s late-night shows together drew $220 million in ad revenue in 2024 — just half the $439 million they drew in 2018. RedBird’s Jeff Shell, the former head of NBCUniversal who will run the network once the deal is done, has been crunching the numbers and finding that CBS is a “melting ice cube” with its losses and cost overruns, a source said... While Ellison is predicting imminent regulatory approval, it will come at a cost: FCC chairman Brendan Carr is likely to demand conditions to remedy what he believes is left-wing news bias in programming that violates agency “public interest” rules that govern local broadcasting as opposed to cable."
Colbert jokes about 'cancel culture' and has a very pointed message for Trump
Cancel culture: US talk show hosts react to axing of Stephen Colbert’s 'Late Show' - "“I'm going to go ahead and say it: Cancel culture's gone way too far,” Colbert said to a rambunctious audience that loudly chanted his name... Noting CBS' explanation for his firing, Colbert said, “how can it purely be a financial decision if the show is No. 1 in the ratings? It's confusing. A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff's parents and spouses.”"
If a loss-making show finally gets cancelled, that's cancel culture. Of course, I saw a lot of interesting cope for this, including that the reported losses were fake, that it had been losing money for a while so losing money couldn't have been the reason, that these shows aren't meant to make money, and that these shows are loss leaders and overall profitability is what matters
Weird. Left wingers used to claim that private companies could do whatever they wanted and it wasn't a problem
To left wingers, left wing bias is not bias since reality has a liberal bias, so anti-bias rules only apply in one direction
The WNBA is the #1 women's basketball league in the USA, therefore it cannot be losing money
Jay Leno blasts late-night comedy hosts over divisive content as Colbert gets the boot from CBS - "Jay Leno is taking aim at modern late-night comedy shows, claiming the hosts are isolating half their viewers in an interview released just days after Stephen Colbert got the boot from CBS... Trulio began by mentioning to Leno that his jokes had a reputation of being equally balanced in his time on air. 'I read that there was an analysis done of your work on 'The Tonight Show' for the 22 years and that your jokes were roughly equally balanced between going after Republicans and taking aim at Democrats. Did you have a strategy?' Trulio asked. 'I got hate letters saying, 'You and your Republican friends,' and another saying, 'I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy' - over the same joke,' Leno said. 'That's how you get a whole audience. Now you have to be content with half the audience, because you have to give your opinion.' 'Rodney Dangerfield and I were friends,' Continued Leno. 'I knew Rodney 40 years and I have no idea if he was a Democrat or Republican. We never discussed politics, we just discussed jokes.' 'I like to think that people come to a comedy show to get away from the pressures of life. I love political humor - don't get me wrong. But people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.' 'Funny is funny,' Leno said. 'It's funny when someone who's not….when you make fun of their side and they laugh at it, you know, that's kind of what I do.' 'I just find getting out - I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture,' he continued. 'When I was with Rodney, it was always in the economy of words - get to the joke as quickly as possible.' He criticized comedians who inject their political opinions into every monologue and said he preferred making the whole audience laugh rather than pushing an agenda. 'I don't think anybody wants to hear a lecture … Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole? I like to bring people into the big picture,' he said. 'I don't understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don't do it at all. I'm not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what's funny.'"
Clearly, since he's not on the Right Side of History, he's a fascist
Only 20 people show up to “We’re with Colbert” protest outside CBS Broadcast Center 💀 - "Let's be fair to Colbert here. It is Trump's fault, at least tertiarily. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a serious condition, and the symptoms often include alienating others, which becomes even more problematic if your job is to bring in viewers and keep your advertisers happy... Jay Leno averaged 5.7 million viewers every night, compared to Colbert who was pulling about 2.42 million when he was canceled."
Dave Rubin on X - "Stephen Colbert had a budget of 100 million a year and 200 people on staff for a show that lost 40 million a year. We had 600k views on YouTube and 140k on Rumble livestreams yesterday with 5 people in studio with me, who mainly get paid in Chipotle. (Extra guac on good days.)"
STUDY: Late Night Comedy Shows Begin 2025 With 99% Of Guests Being Left-Wing - "According to a NewsBusters study, 99 percent of their political guests were on the left, matching the result for the last six months of 2024. The grand totals were 106 liberals and Democrats compared to one conservative... MRC analysts also divided the guests into two categories: partisan officials and then journalists and celebrities. When it came to partisan officials, the count was 30 Democrats to 0 Republicans... NewsBusters has been tracking late night comedy guest counts since September 2022, and the cumulative total now stands at 511 liberals and Democrats versus 14 conservatives and Republicans, or 97 percent."
Clearly, this is because right wingers are bad people and have nothing interesting to say or worth hearing
Colbert is latest casualty of late-night TV's fade-out - "Late-night television had been fighting for its survival even before “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was canceled this week... Whether or not politics were at play, the late-night format has been struggling for years, as viewers increasingly cut the cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger viewers, in particular, are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok, leaving smaller, aging TV audiences and declining ad revenues. Americans used to religiously turn on Johnny Carson or Jay Leno before bed, but nowadays many fans prefer to watch quick clips on social media at their convenience. Advertising revenue for Colbert's show has dropped 40% since 2018 - the financial reality that CBS said prompted the decision to end “The Late Show” in May 2026. One former TV network executive said the program was a casualty of the fading economics of broadcast television. Fifteen years ago, a popular late-night show like “The Tonight Show” could earn $100 million a year, the executive said. Recently, though, “The Late Show” has been losing $40 million a year, said a person briefed on the matter. The show's ad revenue plummeted to $70.2 million last year from $121.1 million in 2018, according to ad tracking firm Guideline. Ratings for Colbert’s show peaked at 3.1 million viewers on average during the 2017-18 season, according to Nielsen data. For the season that ended in May, the show’s audience averaged 1.9 million. Comedians like Colbert followed their younger audiences online, with the network releasing clips to YouTube or TikTok. But digital advertising did not make up for the lost TV ad revenue, the source with knowledge of the matter said. The TV executive said reruns of a hit prime-time show like “Tracker” would leave CBS with “limited costs, and the ratings could even go up." "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is just the latest casualty of the collapse of one of television's most durable formats. When “The Late Late Show” host James Corden left in 2023, CBS opted not to hire a replacement. The network also canceled “After Midnight” this year, after host Taylor Tomlinson chose to return to full-time stand-up comedy."
FASCISM ALERT: Show That Wasn't Making Money Canceled | Babylon Bee
Samantha Bee: Ending Stephen Colbert's Late Show Was a 'No-Brainer' - "Former late-night host Samantha Bee is giving her take on CBS cancelling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” During a recent appearance on the “Breaking Bread with Tom Papa” podcast, Bee said she believes that ending Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” was a “financial decision,” as cited by CBS, but also thinks it was in part to “curry favor with the president” amid the merger between Paramount, CBS’ parent company, and Skydance. “I think both things are true,” she said. “It definitely was hemorrhaging money. These legacy shows are hemorrhaging money with no real end to that…in sight, people are just not tuning in.” Bee added, “People are literally on their phones all the time for one thing, so they actually don’t necessarily need a recap of the day’s events. They’re very well-versed in what has happened.” She went on to explain that while hosting her TBS show “Full Frontal,” which ran for seven seasons from 2016 to 2022, not stirring controversy during network mergers was a “constant source of conversation.” From her experience, it seemed like a “no-brainer” for CBS to end “The Late Show.” “It’s so much easier for them to cut it loose with this merger coming down the pike,” Bee said. “It makes the decision such a no-brainer, and probably the most agonizing decisions they were having were about how do we float this? How do we not get a lot of blowback? I’m sure they knew it was happening a long time ago.”"
Nolte: Stephen Colbert Changes Story, Backs Off Claim CBS Killed James Talarico Interview - "What outgoing Late Show host Stephen Colbert said about CBS on Tuesday contradicts what he said on Monday... After blaming the Trump Administration for enforcing the FCC “equal time” rule, Colbert said that “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV.” Tuesday afternoon, CBS released a statement that contradicts all of that... Colbert says the network told him in no uncertain terms he could not broadcast the interview with Rep. James Talarico (D-TX) while CBS claims they merely pointed out how broadcasting that interview could trigger the “equal time” rule. Additionally, CBS offered “options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.” Namely, as I mentioned yesterday, it could be fulfilled by giving “equal time” to Talarico’s opponents for next month’s Democrat nomination for the Texas U.S. Senate seat: Rep. Jasmine Crockett and businessman Ahmad Hassan, both of whom are on the ballot. Rather than offer the two candidates not supported by the Democrat Party establishment equal time, he chose to run the Talarico interview on YouTube. Nevertheless, as you can see, there is a massive gulf between what Colbert claims and what CBS claims. Colbert said he was ordered not to broadcast the interview. CBS says the exact opposite. CBS basically called Colbert a liar, and on Tuesday night, Colbert didn’t dispute that. Instead, he mealy-mouthed around it... Colbert admitted he lied. “CBS told me unilaterally I had to abide by the equal time rules” is a far cry from “we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.” Stephen Colbert seems desperate to do two things: 1) make himself a martyr, and 2) make a perfect fool of himself while doing so."
Of course, left wingers were very upset, because they don't understand things as always. The law is meant to push the left wing agenda, so following the law is fascism when it hurts the left
Tyson Zahner | Facebook - "I’m seeing a lot of people on the left championing Stephen Colbert as some kind of free‑speech hero for “defying” Trump’s FCC and airing his James Talarico interview anyway. Here’s what actually happened, and why I think Colbert looks a lot more like a coward than the free‑speech martyr his fan club is making him out to be. Colbert taped a long interview with James Talarico, a Democrat who is currently running for U.S. Senate in Texas. CBS’s lawyers told him that putting that segment on his broadcast show could trigger the FCC’s “equal time” rule, because Talarico’s primary opponents would then be entitled to comparable airtime during an active election. Key detail (This is important)... The equal time rule ONLY applies to broadcast TV and radio. It does NOT apply to YouTube, streaming, or social media. So what did Colbert do? He put the interview on YouTube, and then went on TV to brag about how brave he was for posting it where the rule doesn’t apply. If this was really some heroic “stand up to the man” moment, he’d have run it on his actual CBS show and forced the FCC’s hand. Posting a safe, online‑only “exclusive” that conveniently dodges the only rule with teeth is just compliance cosplay and not the brave civil disobedience the left is pretending it is. Now, why is equal time suddenly a problem for guys like Colbert? Because for years, late‑night and daytime talk shows were effectively treated as exempt “news interview” programs. In 2006, the FCC even blessed Jay Leno’s interview segment with then‑Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a bona fide news interview, and networks have since used that as cover to pile candidates onto these shows without triggering equal‑time obligations. But those shows clearly didn’t stay neutral (if they ever were). They turned into nightly DNC infomercials… They are now openly partisan, candidate‑heavy, and overwhelmingly one‑sided. Trump’s FCC finally said: if you’re going to act like campaign media, you’re going to be treated like campaign media. In January, the FCC issued new guidance saying late‑night and daytime talk shows featuring candidate interviews can’t just assume they’re exempt anymore, and that they may have to give opposing candidates equal time. That’s the part the Colbert fans leave out. This isn’t Big Bad Trump randomly silencing some brave truth‑teller. It’s the FCC telling networks: your partisan talk shows don’t get to be campaign arms for Democrats and hide behind “news” exemptions forever. If you want to keep turning your comedy hour into campaign TV, you play by campaign rules… including equal time. So yes, there’s a real First Amendment conversation to be had about how far the FCC should go. But let’s not pretend Stephen Colbert is risking anything here. The network lawyers warned him about equal time on broadcast, and he took the safest possible path: move the content to a platform where the rule doesn’t apply, then collect applause for “standing up to censorship”. Give me a break!"
Washington Free Beacon on X - "Remember when Stephen Colbert took to the airwaves to suggest that the Trump administration intervened at the 11th hour to intimidate his bosses into pulling an interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico? Both Colbert and Talarico knew days before the interview actually took place that it would not air on TV due to concerns from CBS lawyers, but Talarico sat down with Colbert anyway, hoping that Colbert “would tell his audience the story of federal interference,” the New York Times reported. Talarico then milked the hubbub for earned media, millions of dollars in fundraising, and a primary win over Rep. Jasmine Crockett."
Meme - *Family Guy Okay Not Okay* "CNN identifying a suspect: *all skin colours* White Male"
CNN’s Erin Burnett skewered for saying NYC shooter was ‘possibly white’ - YouTube
Meme - ""WHITE MALE" - CNN *Shane Devon Tamura*"
John Kennedy on X - "In the past, NPR CEO Katherine Maher said that America is “addicted to White supremacy” and that the words “boy and girl” are “erasing language for non-binary people.” Now that NPR might finally lose its taxpayer money, she’s singing a different tune. Americans don't buy it."
Plus, she claimed that federal funding was "not much"
Thread by @SenJohnKennedy on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher on CNN this morning: “As far as the accusations that we’re biased, I’d stand up and say, ‘Please show me a story that concerns you.’” I’ve got a few:
NPR reported that country music and birds are racist, told American people to stop eating beef, and promoted the Russia-gate conspiracy. No person with a brain above a single-celled organism would call these articles fair and balanced. NPR claimed President Biden’s presidential debate performance didn’t change the election, days before he dropped out of the race. If you believe that headline, you believe in the tooth fairy. But that’s what NPR reported with your tax dollars. NPR reported that there is no evidence that biological men have an unfair advantage over biological women in sports. NPR also called America’s interstate highways racist. I did not know our highways were racist. I thought they were concrete, but not according to NPR. NPR referred to rural Americans as “Christian nationalists” and heaped praise on Biden administration official Rachel Levine. I could go all day. American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund this opinion journalism."
Meme - "Twitter then revised its label on NPR's account to "government-funded media." The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
"$1.1B of federal funding for public media has been eliminated. This is devastating for the millions of people who rely on public media every day. We will fight to restore federal funding. In the meantime, your donation is more critical now than ever. Help this irreplaceable resource continue to be a reliable companion and civic cornerstone, not just for you, but for all. Join our community of supporters today. DONATE NOW"
Weird.. Surely NPR in 2025 cannot be saying that NPR in 2023 was spreading misinformation about their federal funding being insignificant
Meme - Sean Davis @seanmdav: "The woman on the right is Ghislaine Maxwell. She trafficked children for Jeffrey Epstein. The woman on the left owns your magazine."
The Atlantic @Theatlantic: ""If the Epstein scandal teaches us anything, it is that America needs a dedicated and decently funded group of people whose job is not just to ask questions, but to find answers;" @helenlewis writes. "Let's call them journalists""
Readers added context: "The Atlantic is majority-owned by Laurene Powell Jobs through Emerson Collective. Publicly available photos show Powell Jobs attending social events with Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein."
Thread by @SenJohnKennedy on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger on CNN this morning: “People often struggle to come up with examples” of left-wing bias at PBS. Actually, it’s not a struggle at all. Here are just a few of PBS’s biggest whiffs: 🧵
In Louisiana, a PBS video claimed that pre-schoolers “may have racial bias.” PBS affiliates also advocated for males in women’s sports to have “support in their push for athletic access.” They have the right to say this stuff—but not with your money. Even worse, PBS pushed so-called “gender-affirming care for youth” and released woke “anti-racist” talking points for “[t]alking to young children about race and racism.” Should taxpayers really be funding PBS’s hot takes on “the hidden racism of young white Americans”? PBS also thought it was a good idea to cover “a blueprint for the case against Trump” and claim that Gov. Sarah Palin “ushered in the ‘post-truth’ political era in which Trump has thrived.” Give me a break. Thanks to President Trump’s rescission package, taxpayers may finally be able to get out of the business of deeply weird, left-wing media. That’s a good thing."
Meacham on X - "They hate NPR because it’s unbiased and it’s not commercial. And there’s no screaming and calling each other names and dehumanizing each other. It’s actual journalism and they hate it."
Project for Immigration Reform on X - "NPR once hosted a live talk segment about the H-1B visa program and explicitly stated they had no interest in bringing on guests who opposed the program because of “xenophobia.” Instead, they invited panelists who stood to gain from the visa: a company CEO, an immigration lawyer, and a foreign worker on the H-1B. Then, to NPR’s shock, when they opened the phone and chat lines for questions, they were flooded with angry listeners who criticized the show’s blatant one-sidedness and pointed out that the visa had cost many Americans their jobs—sometimes even forcing them to train their H-1B replacements before being laid off to secure severance pay. NPR is indeed biased and untruthful."
Erick Erickson on X - "Dear American Press Corps:
Last year, multiple press outlets "fact checked" claims about the apartment complex in Aurora, CO and concluded Trump was lying. Yesterday, 28 TdA gang members who lived in that complex were indicted by a grand jury for using the complex as a base of criminal activity. Last week, you guys insisted restaurant reservations in DC were down 25%, but actually they're up 30% because you misread the data. You've run stories about starving kids in Gaza that turned out not to be true. You've run stories about the Israelis killing people that turned out not to be true.
Have you noticed your mistakes always amplify leftwing talking points and attack the right? Have you noticed your ratings are in free fall, subscriptions are down, and viewership is down? Perhaps that is all related. But I doubt you care."
Stephen L. Miller on X - "This is how you knew the White House press were in on Joe Biden's condition and willfully submitting questions to his advisors. White House reporters are grumbling that Trump took friendly questions, but not a single one of them protested when the image came out that an LA Times reporter war pre-submitting her questions to the Biden White House. Not a single one of them protested. They have discredited themselves."
David Perell on X - "People think news bias is about how stories are told, but the bigger bias happens earlier in the process with the decision of what to cover in the first place. Newsrooms are like giant spotlights, and where they shine their light shapes the world more than what they actually say."
Anton Seim 🔑 on X - "I did a stint for Marketplace APM radio. I was shocked to learn how it worked. It wasn’t journalism, but journalists being told what the stories were each day and what to report on them."
Libs of TikTok on X - "NEW HOAX JUST DROPPED “The Trump admin removed a memorial for black soldiers” Only when you scroll alllll the way down do they admit that it actually works on a rotation and a panel which happened to feature a black servicemember was simply rotated. You don’t hate the media enough"
