The Tragedy of Ending Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’

When CBS launched into the challenge of changing David Letterman because the host of The Late Present, in 2014, the community spared no expense. It employed Stephen Colbert, who had collected Emmys and acclaim whereas internet hosting his Comedy Central discuss present, The Colbert Report; gave him complete inventive management; and totally revamped Manhattan’s Ed Sullivan Theater so Colbert may make the present’s longtime venue his personal. After a shaky first 12 months, Colbert discovered his footing within the lead-up to the 2016 election by focusing his opening monologues extra pointedly on politics. The Late Present quickly grew to become the highest-rated discuss present in America—a crown it has not relinquished since.Ten years on, CBS has snatched the crown off its head. The community seems to have grown so dismayed with the state of late-night tv that it has unceremoniously canceled one of many style’s most profitable stalwarts: In an announcement final evening, CBS introduced that not solely will this season of The Late Present—set to air by way of Could 2026—be this system’s final, however the franchise may even be retired totally. (“We contemplate Stephen Colbert irreplaceable,” the assertion gives as clarification.) The choice rapidly prompted loads of hypothesis amongst trade observers, given Colbert’s current, unvarnished scorn for CBS’s mother or father firm, Paramount, after it settled a lawsuit with Donald Trump; the president had accused 60 Minutes, the community’s commemorated TV newsmagazine, of deceptively modifying an election-season interview with Kamala Harris. (CBS Information, which produces 60 Minutes, denied the declare.) However whether or not or not there was some political motivation behind the cancellation (the community referred to as the explanation purely monetary), the underlying level is obvious: The Late Present is now not precious sufficient for CBS to trouble defending it.Learn: Is Colbert’s ouster actually only a ‘monetary resolution’?Because the enterprise of tv adjustments, late-night discuss exhibits have discovered themselves in a very awkward spot. For one, folks have stopped flocking to linear tv as their evenings wind down. In the event that they do flip the TV on, it’s typically to take a look at what’s new to stream somewhat than to place up with a considerably staid format interrupted by many industrial breaks. The customary celeb chats and musical performances usually seem on-line not lengthy after they air, and mentioned celebrities now have many different shops for plugging their tasks: video podcasts, YouTube exhibits. The price of producing a type of options can also be far smaller than the price range for a glitzy affair like The Late Present.These arguments at all times get trotted out as nightly applications drop off the map—like when The Late Present’s lead-out, The Late Late Present, didn’t survive its host James Corden’s departure; and when its follow-up, the Taylor Tomlinson–hosted selection present At Midnight, lasted simply over a 12 months earlier than the comic determined to return to performing stand-up full-time. Questions concerning the style’s relevance are additionally why Late Night time With Seth Meyers needed to eliminate its home band to outlive, and why Comedy Central selected to not exchange The Day by day Present’s former host Trevor Noah. As an alternative, the cable channel was happy with bringing again Noah’s predecessor Jon Stewart for one evening per week, rotating the opposite episodes among the many present forged.And but: Although Puck reported that Colbert’s program was dropping greater than $40 million a 12 months for CBS, there’s one thing fairly stunning a couple of community merely giving up a foothold as established as The Late Present. Model names are laborious to come back by in tv, and The Late Present was an enormous one: Letterman constructed it up over the course of the Nineteen Nineties, after NBC handed him over as Johnny Carson’s successor to The Tonight Present. Colbert then inherited a program outlined by its previous host’s curmudgeonly model of snark and essentially remade it into a way more considerate and genuine present. He’s proved able to deep, empathetic interviews with visitors and spiky, aggressive political joke-making (by broadcast TV’s inflexible requirements).Learn: The late-night experiment that places comedy firstStill, Colbert would by no means have the ability to obtain the ubiquity that Carson and Letterman loved earlier than the appearance of streaming. The occasional clip would possibly go viral, and leisure websites will write up the most effective components of the monologue; the talk-show desk, nevertheless, now not comes with a seat of cultural energy. Colbert was as soon as essentially the most irreverent member of his late-night brethren (folks neglect what a bomb-thrower his satirical Colbert Report character could possibly be), however he has since develop into extra of a fatherly determine—one I worth as a part of the TV firmament however who doesn’t precisely scream “innovative.”Then once more, “innovative” is just not one thing CBS has sought in a very long time. It’s laborious to know what may probably take over for The Late Present when it vanishes in mid-2026. Sitcom reruns? Films you can simply as simply catch on Netflix? The purpose of community tv is to supply one thing that has a dwell jolt to it—sports activities, stand-up, the occasional drama or comedy exhibits that develop into appointment viewing. Because the medium dissolves from relevance, its homeowners as an alternative appear content material to not create something of cultural significance. The Late Present is just not the juggernaut it as soon as was, positive. However what’s most tragic is to consider it being changed by nothing in any respect.