Last week, there was a report that the incoming new owner of Paramount (Larry Ellison's son) may cancel Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert because to avoid liberal politics and alienating Trump.

I thought: No way that's gonna happen.

https://www.vulture.com/article/late-show-with-stephen-colbert-ending-in-2026.html

But I was told that comedy is legal again.

sycasey said:

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socaltownie said:

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I read that only 20% of tv viewing is network broadcast. My guess is the late show is no longer profitable

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Yeah but Colbert still got the best viewership out of all of these shows. Hard to see this decision as anything other than political.

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Colbert had 2.5 million viewers. That ain't great, but it's still 2.5 million educated viewers that viewers clamor for.

And only CBS is canceling late-night shows. They decided to stop programming the 12:30 am timeslot and have given it to a reruns of a guy who's so old he performed on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in the 70s.

okaydo said:

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Colbert had 2.5 million viewers. That ain't great, but it's still 2.5 million educated viewers that viewers clamor for.

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Were you one of those 2.5 million educated viewers that clamored for Colbert?

sycasey said:

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socaltownie said:

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I read that only 20% of tv viewing is network broadcast. My guess is the late show is no longer profitable

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Yeah but Colbert still got the best viewership out of all of these shows. Hard to see this decision as anything other than political.

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If that is the case, he should be picked up by one of the other three networks (including PBS here).

okaydo said:

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bear2034 said:

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okaydo said:

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Colbert had 2.5 million viewers. That ain't great, but it's still 2.5 million educated viewers that viewers clamor for.

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Were you one of those 2.5 million educated viewers that clamored for Colbert?

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No, I'm uneducated.

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okaydo said:

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What the hell happened between June 2024 and July 2025??? Hmmmmm....

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Someone tried to assassinate Trump and failed. Democrats became even more unpopular with Americans as they lied to the country about the border, and inflation, and engaged in lawfare against their main political opponent only to take down their own political candidate who just won the primary election and previously received the most votes in history in the last general election and replaced him with someone they don't talk about anymore.

sycasey said:

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But I was told that comedy is legal again.

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Even libs don't think Colbert is funny.

The Smothers Brothers mark their CBS firing 50 years ago | AP News https://apnews.com/article/6e2df9337df04d459f66d519d1daa5aa

" CBS abruptly yanked "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in April 1969 because of their persistent and humorous opposition to the Vietnam War, support of civil rights and tweaking authority. They welcomed controversial anti-war guests and resisted efforts to censor the show. The brothers weren't allowed to use the phrase "sex education" or joke that someone was "a known heterosexual."

https://www.thewrap.com/colbert-cancellation-explained-trump-paramount-cbs/

A CBS insider told TheWrap that late night advertising fell off a cliff four years ago, and that the "Late Show" has been losing money despite its strong ratings and huge following on social media and YouTube. This person declined to say how much the show was losing.

The insider said that the reason for announcing the cancellation now had nothing to do with pressure around the Paramount-Skydance merger and only to do with giving Colbert time to prepare for his departure, while providing the show's writers time to seek out new deals.

But another CBS insider confessed: "It's upsetting," noting: "It's hard not to make all these connections. Trump has said all the late night guys should be fired."

Bob Einstein aka Officer Judy aka Super Dave Osborne aka Marty Funkhouser

The Super Bob Einstein Movie (2021)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16533296/?ref_=ext_shr_other

tequila4kapp said:

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i will trade CBS bringing back Colbert if ABC ****cans The View.

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You actually what the View? Interesting.

sycasey said:

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Nothing about it is surprising, but it is amusing to see the same conservatives who screamed about "liberal cancel culture" for years now actively cheering it on when it's their own guy doing the canceling. Such deeply-held convictions!

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First, there is some probability the financials is a true explanation. That aside, it is action by a single corporation to curry political favor in advance of an administration decision on a merger. That is what it is but it isn't cancel culture in the slightest.

tequila4kapp said:

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sycasey said:

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Nothing about it is surprising, but it is amusing to see the same conservatives who screamed about "liberal cancel culture" for years now actively cheering it on when it's their own guy doing the canceling. Such deeply-held convictions!

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First, there is some probability the financials is a true explanation. That aside, it is action by a single corporation to curry political favor in advance of an administration decision on a merger. That is what it is but it isn't cancel culture in the slightest.

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Do you think that the various people who lost jobs during MeToo didn't have that happen because a company wanted to curry political favor?

Now if it happened under Trump then it wasn't specifically to curry favor with his administration, but to be politically favorable in a broader sense? Absolutely yes.

Also, where would the Trump people get the idea that canceling Colbert would be something they wanted? Maybe from conservative media constantly complaining about liberal bias on late-night shows? That's still cancel culture.

This is phenomenal @mazemoore. pic.twitter.com/WG0RhSuBAK

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 18, 2025

Colbert couldn't hide his TDS and it cost him his career.

sycasey said:

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Do you think that the various people who lost jobs during MeToo didn't have that happen because a company wanted to curry political favor?

Now if it happened under Trump then it wasn't specifically to curry favor with his administration, but to be politically favorable in a broader sense? Absolutely yes.

Also, where would the Trump people get the idea that canceling Colbert would be something they wanted? Maybe from conservative media constantly complaining about liberal bias on late-night shows? That's still cancel culture.

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Cancel Culture is the phenomena where (typically) left of center groups organize and target companies to change policies under threat of negative economic impact. That is not even remotely close to the same thing as what happened here. Nobody targeted Colbert. CBS made a decision based on economics of the show and / or their desire to get the merger approved. The closest thing on The Right would be Budweiser, though my impression is that was a more organic reaction and not really CC.

tequila4kapp said:

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okaydo said:

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sycasey said:

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socaltownie said:

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I read that only 20% of tv viewing is network broadcast. My guess is the late show is no longer profitable

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Yeah but Colbert still got the best viewership out of all of these shows. Hard to see this decision as anything other than political.

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Colbert had 2.5 million viewers. That ain't great, but it's still 2.5 million educated viewers that viewers clamor for.

And only CBS is canceling late-night shows. They decided to stop programming the 12:30 am timeslot and have given it to a reruns of a guy who's so old he performed on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in the 70s.

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The important number is profitability, not the 2.5M

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Yeah, but they didn't try to do things to make The Late Show more profitable. They didn't cut the staff. Hell, they could've moved to a smaller venue. They didn't try to have Colbert do product placement and advertiser tie-ins, which Kimmel and Fallon do.

tequila4kapp said:

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sycasey said:

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Do you think that the various people who lost jobs during MeToo didn't have that happen because a company wanted to curry political favor?

Now if it happened under Trump then it wasn't specifically to curry favor with his administration, but to be politically favorable in a broader sense? Absolutely yes.

Also, where would the Trump people get the idea that canceling Colbert would be something they wanted? Maybe from conservative media constantly complaining about liberal bias on late-night shows? That's still cancel culture.

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Cancel Culture is the phenomena where (typically) left of center groups organize and target companies to change policies under threat of negative economic impact. That is not even remotely close to the same thing as what happened here. Nobody targeted Colbert. CBS made a decision based on economics of the show and / or their desire to get the merger approved. The closest thing on The Right would be Budweiser, though my impression is that was a more organic reaction and not really CC.

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"Cancel Culture" was labeled as a phenomenon on left-of-center behavior during the MeToo era and thereabouts, but IMO the behavior existed long before that. Historically, no one has "canceled" people like the right wing. (This is part of why I was never fully comfortable with that period in history. Certainly some folks like Weinstein or Cosby deserved to be caught but it quickly spiraled out beyond that . . . and I didn't like that it seemed to come from a fundamentally conservative impulse, even though it was happening on the left.)

Given that, you're probably right that Colbert is a mild example at best.

bear2034 said:

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okaydo said:

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What the hell happened between June 2024 and July 2025??? Hmmmmm....

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Someone tried to assassinate Trump and failed. Democrats became even more unpopular with Americans as they lied to the country about the border, and inflation, and engaged in lawfare against their main political opponent only to take down their own political candidate who just won the primary election and previously received the most votes in history in the last general election and replaced him with someone they don't talk about anymore.

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You're right, that was funny.