GYoung Digital Blog

When the news broke that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was getting canceled, there was immediate outrage that followed. The outrage was due to Colbert announcing his cancellation just a couple days after he criticized his parent company for settling a law suit with Donald Trump, calling it a bribe. This took place around the same time that Paramount, his parent company, was in the works to merge with Skydance Media, an American production company that produced such movies as Top Gun: Maverick (which, I mean, is a pretty good movie), which would require the Trump administrations approval. The concern that, since Colbert is so critical of Donald Trump, then the merger might not get approve, or the story seemed to go. So, to make the decision easier, they decided to get rid of the Late Show, and make up some reason to justify the cut, such that is was purely for “financial” reasons.

This sparked outrage, with some speculating that Trump had too much power over the media, and that media companies are too scared to stand up for themselves. And many people responded accordingly. Colbert went on his show and made fun of CBS by coming up with silly ways of losing $40 to $50 million, Jon Stewart put on a song and dance number telling CBS and Paramount to go fuck themselves, and then there was a lot of discussion among online independent media that discussed the business model of networks and top-rated talk shows and what networks would normally do to salvage such shows.

So, yeah, there was a lot of freak-outs going on around the announcement to cancel the Late Show.

This news was certainly surprising, but at the same time, I thought it was underwhelming. All this does is allow Stephen Colbert to jump into independent media.

My immediate thought: Oh, he’ll probably just do what Conan O’Brien did and start a podcast.

Digital Independent Media

This new merger with Skydance Media might just be them getting ahead of things and cutting ties of legacy media so they can build their presence in digital media. More and more people are watching digital channels and streaming these days, and the viewership for television is collapsing. Advertising revenue for The Late Show dropped 40% since 2018, while digital advertising is only surpassing traditional media. There are just simply more people watching streaming than there are watching late night TV.

There has been a stready trend of high profile media personalities that eventually leave their original program, for one reason or another, just to move on to independant media to decent success. A few named that come to mind are Chris Cuomo, Tucker Carlson, Mehdi Hasan, Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and the aforementioned Conan O’Brien. The current late show programs have become closer to content farms for TikTok’s anyway, so, they may as well just go all-in and get into digital media.

Besides, Stephen Colbert already set the stage for what a podcast might look like for him. Think back duringt he pandemic lock-downs, he shot his show from his kitchen at home, occasionally co-hosting with his wife, and having his kids participate in some skits.

This kind of authenticity and wholesomeness would be hot for todays audiences. Colbert is a hero among Millenials anway, and they’re getting older, thinking of careers and families themselves. To have Colbert come around and create content that speaks to those concers, he would have great success.

Also, it’s cheaper.

Cost of Show Business

His current show has hundreds of employees, all of which he needs to pay. Meanwhile, kicking off a podcast at home, where he basically does the same kind of show, but with only 5 or 10 employees, it would be easier to manage.

Scott Galloway wrote about the costs that go into shows like that when working with such a large staff. Consider that, the Late Show brings in about $60 million of annual revenue, but they have 200 employees, that comes out to about $300,000 per employee. But when you have a podcast that brings in about $20 million annual revenue, and you have 15 employees, that comes out to about $1.3 million revenue per employee.

A Blessing in Disguise

So, I did find it strange that there was such outrage when Colbert announced his cancelation. I would have thought that he’d find it to be a blessing. Just start a podcast, interview a bunch of people, do collaborations with Conan, or Jon Stewart, or something. There have been so many big-name media personalities who would go on to become independent, from Conan O’Brien as mentioned earlier, to Mehdi Hasan, to even Tucker Carlson.

If Seth Meyer ever lost his show, he also has a good show waiting for him. The weird, absurdist things he did on his show during the pandemic was incredible — bringing in new characters, having shifting props — he could probably do some wild things. All while working with a small team.

I think Colbert should take this all as a blessing.