CBS pulled the plug on The Late Show, but the real story isn’t politics—it’s a failure to follow the audience into the digital age.
Some people on social media think The Late Show was canceled because of Trump. He’s celebrating on Truth Social, but it’s doubtful he had anything to do with it. The more likely reason is precisely what Paramount said: a financial decision.
A business that loses $40 million a year is unlikely to remain in business. Blame a shrinking linear audience, rising production costs, and a failure to evolve into a digital-first, everywhere-content machine. Whether politics played a factor is pure speculation, but the financial and market pressures are written on the wall.
When you look at the big picture, TV talk shows, regardless of daypart, are either mostly being watched in social media clips or being replaced by podcasts – video podcasts. I mostly listen, not watch—but over a billion people now watch podcasts on YouTube.
Streaming has changed everything. In June, streaming accounted for 46% of viewership while broadcast and cable combined for 41.9%. YouTube now leads all platforms in TV and streaming time, according to Nielsen.
If you’re like me, you’re not staying up for late-night shows—you’re catching the clips on YouTube, TikTok, or wherever they land.
The Late Show has declined from nearly 4 million nightly linear viewers a decade ago, but it still gets over 2.5 million viewers and leads the pack. However, Colbert lags behind Kimmel and Fallon on the platforms where more people are watching.
The Tonight Show has 32.7 million YouTube subscribers and 19.2 million on Instagram. Jimmy Kimmel Live follows with 20.7 million on YouTube and 4.3 million on Instagram.
The Late Show? 10M on YouTube and 3.7M on Instagram.
It’s not just losing the attention war, but also the ad war. According to Hollywood Reporter, brands spent an estimated $32.2 million on The Late Show this year—compared to over $50 million each for Kimmel and Fallon. ABC and NBC also bundle in digital ad packages. CBS doesn’t.
With late-night linear ad spend falling from $439 million in 2018 to $221 million in 2024, it’s shocking CBS didn’t chase the audience—and the money—harder.
From all the reports, The Late Show’s downfall looks like a case of a legacy business failing to adapt fast enough.
And for the late-night shows still standing, the future’s uncertain. Even Jimmy Kimmel asked last year if they’ll still exist in a decade.
“There’s a lot to watch and now people can watch anything at anytime, they’ve got all these streaming services. It used to be Johnny Carson was the only thing on at 11:30pm and so everybody watched and then David Letterman was on after Johnny so people watched those two shows but now they’re so many options. Maybe more significantly, the fact that people are easily able to watch your monologue online the next day, it really cancels out the need to watch it when it’s on the air and once people stop watching it when it’s on the air, networks are going to stop paying for it to be made,” he said on the Politickin’ podcast.
As Kimmel noted, good programming is expensive, and appointment TV doesn’t fit this on-demand world.
Podcasts are cheaper and created for how people consume now—scrolling on phones, watching whenever they want.
That may sound like a doomed scenario, but audiences — and algorithms — are fickle. Creators have to stay nimble, and legacy media must evolve.
At the end of the day, content is still king. Late-night isn’t dead — it’s evolving. The shows still deliver; the challenge is distributing and monetizing them across every platform that matters.
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