“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert insisted on asserting that his top-rated program can be canceled — simply hours after discovering out cash-strapped CBS wouldn’t renew his hefty contract, The Publish has discovered.
The late-night star was informed by community brass late Wednesday night time that his reported $15 million to $20 million contract wouldn’t get picked up and that they had been going to tug the plug on the present, based on a well-placed supply.
Colbert — who had returned from trip two days earlier and blasted CBS-parent Paramount International for settling a high-profile lawsuit with President Trump throughout his monologue — determined the following morning that he would waste no time in sharing the choice about his destiny, the insider added.
“He wanted to tell the world,” the supply mentioned. “CBS said OK. They taped with an audience and had to get the news out there before the audience or staff leaked it.”
Colbert broke the information to the shocked studio viewers at The Ed Sullivan Theater in New York’s Midtown throughout taping at 5:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of “The Late Show” on CBS. I’m not being changed. That is all simply going away,” Colbert mentioned to a refrain of boos.
Lower than two hours later, CBS despatched out a press launch that included the taped feedback, which might air at 11:35 p.m. ET that night time.
A rep for CBS confirmed the community labored with Colbert on rolling out the announcement.
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Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks, who oversees CBS, claimed it was “purely a financial decision” to tug the plug on the late-night staple, first-launched by David Letterman in 1993. Colbert, who took over internet hosting duties a decade in the past, will keep on the air till Could of subsequent yr.
The Publish reported that the present was shedding betweek $40 million and $50 million yearly, and that promoting had slumped together with total viewership. In the meantime, Puck Information reported that the present’s annual manufacturing price was a sky-high $100 million.
A supply aware of the scenario mentioned that each one the late-night reveals have been battling paltry viewership and declining scores, however that Colbert’s present had larger prices, making it onerous to justify persevering with this system.
“If it was losing money like that, then it had to be canceled,” the supply informed The Publish.
Nevertheless, a number of left-leaning pundits and lawmakers speculated that Colbert’s regular weight loss plan of anti-Trump rhetoric, together with final Monday over the Paramount settlement, performed a pivotal function in killing the present.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial sentiment with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. “It’s a ‘big fat bribe,’” Colbert quipped.
“Because it all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance!”
The settlement of the lawsuit has been seen as serving to pave the way in which for Trump’s Federal Communications Fee boss Brendan Carr to greenlight Skydance Media’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount.
CBS has beforehand denied that ther settlement and merger talks aren’t linked.
“I’ve lost interest in extreme POVs on either end, but I see this as a chilling of free speech and the timing seems to send a strong message that this is cause and effect for what he said about the settlement,” a CBS staffer informed Fox Information.
“The CBS leadership could have cloaked it somehow, but made a decision not to.”
On Monday, “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon and different prime comedians had been anticipated to rally round Colbert and make a cameo on “The Late Show,” The Publish solely reported.
