Fired CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert held his own Late Show funeral on Monday night and invited all four late-night hosts — who are equally on the cancellation bubble — onto his stage to lament the end of Colbert’s show.
Joining Colbert on the stage Monday were anti-Trump extremist Jimmy Kimmel of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jimmy Fallon of NBC’s The Tonight Show, Seth Meyers of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, and hardcore leftist John Oliver from HBO’s Last Week Tonight.
Calling the crew of ratings disasters his “best television friends,” Colbert invited each of the hosts on to pump up his ego and decry CBS’s decision to end the former Comedy Central host’s money-wasting, ratings crashing late-night show.
“Late night is in a bit of a weird spot right now — spoiler alert. The five of us being here right now, obviously, it’s dangerous because we represent so much of late night. Jon Stewart is designated survivor. Someone has to survive for the president to be mad at,” Colbert quipped.
He went on to ask the other four hosts to make their case to justify why any of these late-night shows should still be on the air. Colbert said he’s been asked three times in the last 10 months to “make a case for late night.” And his answer? “People like it. I enjoy doing it.”
Unfortunately for Colbert’s presumption, the ratings don’t show that all that many people enjoy his show. Just a few months ago, for instance, his show hit its worst ratings in its history earning a tiny 285,000 viewers in the crucial 25-54 demographic.
Kimmel also tried to put a brave face on the ratings disasters suffered by these late-night shows. Kimmel said the answer to Colbert’s question is that more people watch late night shows today than when Johnny Carson was on the air. “Just look at the figures,” he said.
The claim seems suspect. Throughout 2025, Colbert only averaged 2.545 million viewers. Early this year Colbert averaged only 2.249 million viewers. While he beat Jimmy Kimmel (2.1 million) and Jimmy Fallon (1.25 million) last week, over at Fox News, Greg Gutfeld tops them all with 3.2 million.
And remember, Gutfeld’s show is only available on cable where it is available to a far smaller number of TV customers than any of the network late night shows.
Meanwhile, Johnny Carson was viewed by 12 million viewers on bad years and as many as 17 million during the high times. Carson got more viewers even during his lowest rated years than all the current late-night hosts combined get today.
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