Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' Cancellation: Economic Decision or Political Calculation?
On Thursday, July 17, CBS announced the end of its popular "late show," hosted by Stephen Colbert, in 2026. The decision was motivated by the show's exorbitant costs, but also perhaps by the host's anti-Trump remarks, according to the American press.
“There's something rather shocking about a network simply abandoning a position as entrenched as 'The Late Show,'” laments The Atlantic .
On Thursday, July 17, CBS announced it would end its flagship show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, in May 2026 after one final season. However, the program, which launched in 2015, “quickly became the most-watched talk show in the United States, a title it has not lost since,” the weekly magazine points out.
“A purely financial decision,” the American television network announced. If “ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was still profitable just a few years ago,” reports the Wall Street Journal , now “He loses about $40 million a year.”
A situation that can be explained in particular by a decline in audiences and, mechanically, the advertising revenue that accompanies them. Moreover, "the budget for the show, recorded at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, includes a live band, a team that the host himself estimated at 200 people, as well as an annual salary of $20 million for Colbert, according to a person familiar with the show's operations," adds the business daily.
A bad dynamic that doesn't just affect the CBS show. Other similar programs
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