I'd worry more about defunding public broadcasting or the Washington Post editorial stance. There's a good faith argument here that the cause was market conditions:
> The genre has been struggling as the majority of the country migrates in droves to streaming entertainment and away from traditional broadcast and cable television...
> The number of late-night shows has dwindled in recent years...
> The genre has also experienced a sharp decline in advertising revenue in recent years...
It's surprising that the most successful late night show is going away first, and the optics of it happening while Paramount is trying to curry favor with the Trump administration couldn't be worse.
At the heart of the dispute: a new 10-year, $3 billion overall deal for Parker and Stone that would more than triple the valuation of the current deal that expires in 2027
"One possible factor in the negotiations: an $800 million loan that Park County took in 2023 from private equity firm the Carlyle Group. Parker and Stone could be squeezed for cash to repay roughly $80 million in interest per year, according to one person knowledgeable of the arrangement, who noted that Paramount may be open to paying more than $150 million annually in a new deal but not for 10 years."
>Naively, these seem like contradictory statements.
It isn't contradictory. They don't want to publicly admit "hey nobody watched our unfunny show" because then it might impact their shares/valuation. Most likely that show was a loss leader.
Honest, informed satire that's often more helpful in learning about real issues than "the news"; no surprise it's being cancelled. This and John Oliver are probably the last real holdouts in honest media in the current era, from what I've seen.
I’m not surprised that a late night host was let go, I’m surprised it was Colbert.
Jimmy Kimmel has a well documented history of racist and sexist skits. Every time a new video of his past emerges, it’s got to be an embarrassment for his network.
According to Keith Olbermann, a far-ish left progressive, on his podcast The Late Show's cancellation it really was primarily due to financial difficulties of it being too expensive in a declining industry of traditional media where there are barely any OTA TV or cable viewers. Their overhead is too much and their internet audiences don't make them enough money. This is a classic horse and buggy company failing to adapt to an automobile world.
He also made it known he doesn't care personally for Colbert who rapidly took a proverbial wrecking ball to David Letterman's set to effectively damnatio memoriae his predecessor and obliterate all potential memorabilia.
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[ 7.0 ms ] story [ 60.9 ms ] thread> The genre has been struggling as the majority of the country migrates in droves to streaming entertainment and away from traditional broadcast and cable television...
> The number of late-night shows has dwindled in recent years...
> The genre has also experienced a sharp decline in advertising revenue in recent years...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sou...
At the heart of the dispute: a new 10-year, $3 billion overall deal for Parker and Stone that would more than triple the valuation of the current deal that expires in 2027
Yeah. So that's not going to happen lol.
That's quite the loan.
> "It is not related in any way to the show’s performance"
Naively, these seem like contradictory statements.
It isn't contradictory. They don't want to publicly admit "hey nobody watched our unfunny show" because then it might impact their shares/valuation. Most likely that show was a loss leader.
Why the flagging?
https://x.com/MattBelloni/status/1946236833668731390
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/17/14944994/stephen-colbe...
Jimmy Kimmel has a well documented history of racist and sexist skits. Every time a new video of his past emerges, it’s got to be an embarrassment for his network.
Poor luck for Colbert.
He also made it known he doesn't care personally for Colbert who rapidly took a proverbial wrecking ball to David Letterman's set to effectively damnatio memoriae his predecessor and obliterate all potential memorabilia.