Nothing better exemplifies why Stephen Colbert’s Late Show suddenly got canceled than the fact that Colbert’s prime guest on the night of the cancellation’s announcement was … Adam Schiff.
Yes, pencil-necked Adam Schiff. Yes, serial liar Adam Schiff. Yes, the dull, charisma-free Democrat U.S. Senator from California who spent more time on TV spreading deliberate misinformation about the Russia Collusion Hoax than anyone not named Jake Tapper.
CBS is reportedly paying Colbert $15 million a year. On top of that, for some reason, Colbert requires a crew of 200 (and their salaries) to put on a late-night show with zero cultural impact that fewer than one percent of Americans watch. And still, he thinks it’s a good idea to invite on a dull and divisive politician to spout dull and divisive talking points.
That’s arrogance.
There are all kinds of excuses and conspiracies floating around about why CBS suddenly canceled Colbert and the 32-year-old franchise that launched in 1993 with David Letterman.
Naturally, the evil Donald Trump must be behind it…
“Does the end of Colbert’s show in May 2026 relate to the Paramount-Skydance merger? To Colbert’s criticism of Donald Trump? To the demise of late night television? Who’s to say?” the Hollywood Reporter wrote.
Either way, it’s certainly not Colbert’s fault. No, it must be an all-new problem with the “economics of late-night TV”:
It’s a brutal blow for late-night, which has already been struggling in recent years with CBS recently axing After Midnight, the show that replaced The Late Late Show with James Corden, instead of replacing host Taylor Tomlinson.
Blah-blah-blah…
There’s only one reason Stephen Colbert got canceled, and that’s that Stephen Colbert sucks.
That’s it.
All this guy does is use an hour of network airtime (on publicly-owned airwaves) to masturbate his own political sweet spot.
And now we know that appeals to only two million people in a country of 330 million.
The problem is not the economics of late-night TV. The problem is the economics of Stephen Colbert.
US President Joe Biden (2nd R) and former US President Clinton (R) take their seats as US talk show host Stephen Colbert (L) and former US President Barack Obama shake hands during a campaign fundraising event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 28, 2024. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Bottom line: Colbert’s relentless, narcissistic act of political onanism will never deliver an audience big enough to justify the budget necessary to pay his $15 million annual salary and the salaries of a crew of 200.
Colbert should be on CNN or MSNBC, where the cost of production is more in line with his limited appeal.
Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show airs on a cable channel (Fox News) that’s available in millions and millions fewer homes than CBS. Nevertheless, Gutfeld! still humiliates Colbert in the ratings night after night. And I’ll bet dollars to rotten bananas Gutfeld’s production budget is a fraction of what CBS is wasting so that Colbert can drop his pants and pleasure himself every night.
Stephen Colbert is so unappealing that his ratings were actually lower — lower! — before he turned the Late Show into a version of the Rachel Maddow Show where the smug, dishonest host wears Harold Lloyd’s glasses.
Johnny Carson left a legacy—the best at what he did for 30 years, with shows so entertaining they are still rerun 30 years after he retired. David Letterman left a legacy—he created late-night for college kids. Arsenio Hall left a legacy—he proved Carson was vulnerable. When Colbert says his goodbyes next May and moves on to a podcast no one listens to, he will only be remembered this way…
Stephen Colbert was a gerbil of a man, an establishment shill, a toadie to big government, a follower instead of a trailblazer, a self-involved statist, a moral coward in the face of Woke McCarthyism, and a divisive, self-regarding loser who killed an entire late-night franchise because he sought applause from those who agreed with him instead of laughs from the rest of us.
Most unforgivably, he sought only the approval of elites because he saw himself as too superior to entertain the rest of us.
In short, Stephen Colbert will be remembered as a dick.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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