In Washington, Democratic politicians are calling for a congressional investigation, while in New York; the Writers’ Guild is asking New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) for a state probe. No, the issue is not the use of the autopen by Biden staff to carry out presidential functions or the crisis in public education. No, it is the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” by CBS.
The outrage over the show’s cancellation is the latest example of presumed entitlement from the left, which suggests that the government, universities, and corporations should subsidize their preferred news and entertainment. Call it the NPR syndrome.
I wrote this weekend about the withdrawal of the government subsidy for NPR and the outrage of its overwhelmingly white, affluent, and liberal audience. Democrats in Congress and NPR’s shrinking listeners were appalled that the American taxpayers would not be required to fund the overwhelmingly liberal outlet. It appears that they are entitled to such federal money even though NPR is dropping in both its audience and revenues.
The outrage of Democratic politicians is hardly surprising. Like NPR, The Late Night Show was used to amplify Democratic talking points. Some of those objecting the loudest were favored guests. Indeed, the show had long ago traded the comedic stylings of prior guests like George Carlin and Don Rickles for the knee-slapping standups of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Cal.).
As Joe Concha recently noted, Warren, 76, appeared 16 times during the show’s ten-year run.
He offered a funereal opening after Trump’s election:
Colbert turned his monologues into diatribes against Donald Trump, Republicans, and most everyone to the right of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., NY), another regular guest. Socialist Bernie Sander (I., VT) was one of Colbert’s most frequent guests followed by figures such as CBS anchor Gayle King (14 appearances), CNN anchor Jake Tapper (12 appearances), and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (8 appearances). Note figures like Tapper had their own collapsing ratings but were still regulars for Colbert.
It did not matter that over half of this country is conservative or libertarian or that over 77 million Americans voted for Trump.
This cringeworthy video is effectively what the audience saw every night as Colbert sought to repackage comedy with orthodoxy:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote on X that “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.” She is right but an investigation is the last thing that liberals should want.
While many are pushing the false claim that the Late Show was a roaring success and number one among late night talk shows, the fact is that Colbert had run the show into the ground.
As Charles Gasparino discussed recently, the show was imposing “punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year” on Paramount at a time when the parent company was trying to sell CBS.
Colbert publicly slammed his employer on the show in settling a case with Trump for $16 million.
However, Colbert seemed more obsessed with pushing his political message than ratings.
Media companies are not in the habit of cancelling profit-making, successful shows, particularly not CBS which has just two prime time shows in the Top 15.
The fact is that Colbert was over paid and underperforming.
Colbert was reportedly pulling in between $15-$20 million as his show was losing $40 million a year. The show had over 100 staffers and cost $130 million to produce.
Advertisers had fled the show, clearly seeing Colbert’s shrinking audience as not a draw for spots. It is a pattern seen on the other largely left-leaning shows.
As Concha noted: “late-night shows on ABC, NBC, and CBS earned $439 million in ad revenue in 2018 combined, but just $220 million in 2024. That’s a 50% decline in less than seven years.”
In comparison, Greg Gutfeld had long trounced Colbert and the other late night shows with a relatively small staff and budget. Viewers were flocking to Fox for his content as the other late night show with a conservative perspective.
Yet, there remains the outrage. Liberal politicians and viewers seem to believe that they are entitled to shows, movies and news programs that maintain their echo chamber. Likewise, celebrities such as Rachel Zegler cratered their movies with controversial political declarations.
Now, despite losing tens of millions of dollars a year, liberals seem to believe that Paramount should subsidize an unfunny show with declining viewership. It is the same mentality of Washington Post writers who were outraged when their new editor told that that they were losing money and “people are not reading your stuff.” They expected billionaire Jeff Bezos to run the Post like a vanity project regardless of their losses or that they were primarily writing for each other. They were wrong just as Colbert was wrong.
Colbert believed that he could tailor his show to less than half of the country and bring in a slew of liberal politicians and media figures who were themselves losing elections and ratings. I cannot imagine why that business plan would fail.
CBS Reportedly Lost $40 Million on Colbert’s Late Show This Year
“as Matt Belloni reports today in Puck, back in 2018, all of late-night television combined generated $438 million in advertising revenue. By 2023, that number had been cut in half, and it has continued to fall.”
“Belloni also reports that CBS executives had been discussing the future of its Late Show franchise for months, and that Colbert’s team was informed around July Fourth that the show was in jeopardy.”
https://latenighter.com/news/cbs-reportedly-lost-40-million-on-colberts-late-show-this-year/
So much for the DNC political conspiracy theory.
CBS did not lose $40 million on Colbert,
…the American Communist Party expended $40 million on propaganda and indoctrination for young minds on Colbert.
DEar Prof Turley,
Yeah. JUst what the world needs. .. a long Schumer-Schiff DNC-led investigation into the cancellation of Colbert and the ‘Late Show’.
The Epstein files must be a hoax.. . that’s why Schumer-Schiff DNC never brought it up.
While I will always fondly remember Colbert’s heroic criticism of the Bush/Cheney dystopian 2001 Space Odessey, he fell head over heels in love with Obama and soon became the poster child for TDS.
It’s not so much Colbert’s amusing critiques of Trump’s incoherent mad-cow chaos that troubles me – the jokes practically write themselves – it was his blind support for The Best Biden Ever!
That’s what political derangement syndrome is nowadays; dwelling on the speck of sawdust in your political opponent’s eyes, while ignoring the festering log jam in Trump’s lizard-eyed optical orifices.
Trump feels no pain or pity or fear about the Epstein files either .. . and he absolutely will not stop until the ‘weak and stupid’ MAGA minions come back to their senses.
*if money is speech .. . I want my money back.
So nice of JT to ignore the current state of our president. For years DJT yelled about the deep state and the Epstein coverup. Years. The deep state was protecting democrat pedophiles. Well, trump is president now and trump is deep siding the Epstein files. Why? Who controls the deep state now? What pedophile is trump protecting now? Himself?
Wasn’t trump found liable of sexual abuse? Didn’t the judge say what trump did was effectively rape?
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” – djt
“Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything” djt
Is it possible trump’s name is in those Epstein files?
Release all the documents, let’s find out.
I don’t believe trump was telling the truth in those quotes. He lies all the time. What makes you think he was telling the truth when he said that?
As usual Anonymous replies have nothing to do with the article. He goes to his default position: BUT TRUMP ….. 😂
>”Well, trump is president now and trump is deep siding the Epstein files. Why? Who controls the deep state now? What pedophile is trump protecting now? Himself?”
I believe you mean Trump is ‘deep sixing’ the Epstein files?
As ‘sordid and boring’ and uninteresting as Trump says the Epstein files are .. . I believe he was clearly working with a foreign intelligence service.
*and they’re not registered with FARA.
*. The AG DOESN’T DO CIVIL CASES.
I could be rong.
^^^^ these people can vote? Seriously?
Often more than once.
“As Concha noted: “late-night shows on ABC, NBC, and CBS earned $439 million in ad revenue in 2018 combined, but just $220 million in 2024. That’s a 50% decline in less than seven years.”
Of course they will have less revenue. Streaming services and the internet shrunk revenue for everyone. Especially when paying for cable is more expensive than internet service. Advertisers now need to go on so many channels like Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, etc. There is far more competition now than there was back in 2018.
Now as for the free market. The late night shows have always been profitable for traditionaly networks. The claim that it’s audiences have been shrinking is pure BS. It’s been a staple of American TV for decades. Who remembers Ben Shapiro’s live wire network? You could tell they were in trouble when they started to beg for subscriptions online and prominent hosts kept leaving or were kicked out for merely mentionng a critique of Trump. Even Charlie Kirk is doing poorly on his show. His criticism of Trump over the Epstein files fiasco has lost him viewers once Trump complained about the attention to the scandal from his own followers.
Clown. Go away and get your own damn blog you loser.
An investigation is quite warranted. If the show was cancelled because of money, then that is too bad for Stephan. If it was cancelled because would otherwise block the Paramount/Skydance merger, then that is a gross violation of the Constitution, criminal bribery, and impeachable.
Why would they cancel it to curry favor if nobody was even watching it? Your stupid conspiracy theories don’t pass the most basic skepticism.
It is odd to call the top rated late night comedy show as “nobody was even watching”.
“top rated late night comedy show” is that something like the tallest midget? The numbers speak for themselves, not enough people were watching to justify the expense. Advertisers were unwilling to pay enough to cover the bloated budget. So, yes, nobody was watching.
TOP rated is GUTFELD!!
GUTFELD BEATS CBS/NBC/ABC DUMMY!
“The outrage over the show’s cancellation is the latest example of presumed entitlement from the left, which suggests that the government, universities, and corporations should subsidize their preferred news and entertainment. Call it the NPR syndrome.”
Turley sure loves hyperbole when it suits his goals. When you start using words like. “entitlement” you know he’s just giving MAGA a reason to hate. In the entire column he never mentions the real reason and the fact that Skydance is owned by the son of a gigantic Trump donor. This was a political decision. One that silences a Trump critic who is perfectly within his rights to criticize and mock Trump.
The claims that the Tonight Show is not making CBS any money is pure smear. Ironically the whole schtick sounds like a Trump rant. Complainig about the kinds of guests, mostly liberal critics of Trump and pushing allegations and “reportedly’s” is classic smear tactics. That’s what Turley has gotten down to and it’s pretty sad.
Everyone knows Trump hates late night shows because they make fun of him. Meaning Trump’s famously thin skin and gripes about the shows easily portray this as retaliation.
Paramount needed FCC approval for this merger and it’s very easy to see someone offered the Tonight Show cancellation as a condition to get approval from Trump’s FCC. Turley loves to gripe when government engages in alleged censorshiop. This is just one way Trump can seek to censor content he doesn’t like by coercion and extortion. But when Turmp’s administration does it it’s ok.
This is nothing more than bribery by Paramount to facilitate the merger. Turley is in essense gleefully supporitng censorship of late night hosts mocking Trump.
Wonder when Turley will mention the Epstein files fiasco. That seems far more serious even for MAGAs to have him address unless they are perfectly fine with the deep state still existing within Trump’s administration or was there really a “deep state”.
The Late late “comedian” …
George, who is paying you and how much for being a Turley Troll?
Clown. Go away and get your own damn blog you loser.
If the intent was to to silence Colbert why are they keeping the show for another season until May 2026?
Why not just buy Colbert’s contract and get a host that would bring back the program to its roots, entertaining people. There are plenty of shows available to those politically minded to listen to the echo chambers of their choice.
And yes, the left believe they are entitled to have taxpayers subsidize a biased NPR or companies to lose money keeping their favorites on the air.
TS:DL. Too stupid, didn’t read.
OT
“[Director of National Intelligence (DNI)] Tulsi Gabbard Releases Evidence Of ‘Years-Long Coup’ [by Obama] On Trump”
– AOL
________
Black Obama needs as White Wash like that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren Commission.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
– Barack Obama
___________________
“We will stop him.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI paramour Lisa Page
_____________________________________________
“[Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”
– Lisa Page to FBI paramour Peter Strzok
_____________________________________________
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI parmour Lisa Page
____________________________________________
“People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this [Trump] server.”
– Bill Priestap
________________
“I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject.”
– Timothy Thibault to John Crabb, U.S. Attorney’s Office, D.C.
___________________________________________________________________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history. The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Sally Yates,
James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove,
Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper,
Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power,
Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, Gen. Milley, George Soros, John McCain,
Marc Elias, Igor Danchenko, Fiona Hill, Charles H. Dolan, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbot,
Cody Shear, Victoria Nuland, Ray “Red Hat” Epps, Don Berlin, Kathy Ruemmler, Rodney Joffe,
Paul Vixie, L. Jean Camp, Andrew Whitney, Lisa O. Monaco, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg,
Matthew Colangelo, Merrick Garland, Juan Merchan, Timothy Thibault et al.
“CRIMINAL REFERRAL”
“Gabbard called for everyone involved to be investigated and prosecuted, adding that she was ‘turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral.’”
– AOL https://www.aol.com/tulsi-gabbard-releases-evidence-years-180919716.html
The Ingrate Show
Dear Mr. Turley, I am not sorry that Mr. Colbert will run out of time in May 2026. As GEB has pointed out, it all came down to finances. Mr. Colbert is nothing but a potty-mouth.
These people complaining are the same people that wanted to boycott Tucker, boycott Hannity, boycott Laura Ingraham and tried to demand that cable companies eliminate the Fix News Network.
Now the hypocrisy arises when one realizes that Colbert had lost a third of his audience and was losing $40 million a year and Tucker, Hannity and Laura were all in the top ten shows on cable. Also, Fox News was and is the biggest money maker on cable and yet these fascists had no problem trying to silence them all.
One last point: I believe Joe Biden nominated a radical leftist to head the FCC who had previously stated that Fix News needs to be banned due to it’s content. So we have the person being nominated to head the GOVERNMENT agency in charge of television having a true hatred for Fox News, a big money maker and yet the left is crying because CBS, a PRIVATE COMPANY, ended Colbert’s show, a money loser.
Please use spell check.
I’m sure that if Biden was president and a major network had settled a lawsuit and canceled its primary late-night show that was critical of his administration in order, seemingly, to lubricate a massive federally approved merger, every commenter here would say nothing, because there are more important things going on like the consumption of cats and dogs and geese. I’m sure of it.
If it was Biden was president, would 60 Minutes have edited an interview with him to make him look competent?
And if the network had a comedian who accurately lampooned Biden, it would be a money making show. People would watch it.
Paramount, CBS parent company, made a financial decision to not only fire Colbert as he was costing them money but opted to end the show completely. Why? The late night show format is losing both audience and money.
How could you lampoon Biden? He did very little objectionable.
You just made a better joke than the Colbert ever did in his entire run.
This action by the left to intervene in a mainstream network decision simply reveals their degree of control in that mainstream media.
I’ve never watched his show, but I have seen plenty of snippets of politicians using it to spread propaganda. Does the show pay guests for their appearance? It is not surprising then that Democrats express outrage and demand an investigation. They are losing a megaphone 📣 for their hideous political ideology.
Or as I call it, their idiotology. Which is believing their acts of doing the same thing in one place will result differently in another place. … Or we can use this definition I found on Urban Dictionary. 🙂
The persistence of inane policies in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Normally (but not exclusively) perpetrated by Labour/Socialist governments.
Socialist is an example of Idiotology.
Refusing a potentially life saving vaccine because Trump spurred on it’s development is idiotology.
Persisting with Vaccine passports & facemask mandates is (with the evidence of their uselessness) Idiotology.
Rejecting Nuclear power as a substitute for burning fossil fuel is idiotology.
Colbert is glib, condescending and threatened his fellow Americans – especially those who didn’t conform to the C19 terrorists’ demands (see the infamous well choreographed syringe skit’). He should apologize publicly but of course he won’t because he’s better than the rest of us.
IMO, anyone who is crying about his departure is someone I won’t listen to, or watch in the future. They’re all just useful idiots for the left to the same degree he is/was. Good riddance, at least for another few years.
Realtime with Bill Maher demonstrates that political humor needn’t kowtow to audience fragmentation into left vs. right.
What is the purpose of a Republican Form of Government and why is it a requirement in the United States?
There are two basic purposes, to establish the equality of participation of ALL THE PEOPLE with equal suffrage in the government, State and Federal, an equality that cannot be won, consolidated, transferred or proxied to political parties! The second to prevent the consolidation and spread of political ideology!
The Democrats only have a National Membership of 13% of the People of the United States and the Republicans have 11%! In a Republican Form of Government each party would have a proportional amount of influence over policy, foreign and domestic, not the artificial controlling majorities they enjoy today.
This is the problem, and the problem they addressed with the Constitution of the United States! If you bother to review our founding documents, and supporting documents like the Federalist and Antifederalist Papers, and the Journal of the Senate, the first 100 years, you will see an emphatic move to preclude individuals, and political parties, and their mischief to acquire power and control over policy! But here we are 250 years later and that’s all we have today, terminal cancer, and yes, this current embodiment of our government must die, the manner of death is the only question, and for the good of the United States, and the people of the United States, the States as the Union must pull the plug immediately, say a few prayers, bury the remains, and reestablish their government on the grave as agreed to unanimous by All the States and formalized as the Constitution of the United States!
Only the States as the Union have the Power and Authority to fix this mess, just like they originally founded the united States, in congress assembled, the Union and the Established Government Authority, Ordained with the Full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, and to do All other Acts and Things the United States may of Right do as an Independent State!
Entitlement is one of the key ingredients in the concept of communal living. I watched an over-weight young woman ranting into a video camera that if her food stamps were cut off, how was she going to feed herself – she believed that food was a human right.
Our welfare system nurtured that idea by creating a “safety net” so that everyone is going to be taken care of – by whom?…the answer was an impersonal government.; thereby removing that one key element important to charity – a sense of indebtedness to the kind act being personally delivered by friends or local organizations where people know people and care about them.
The idea that someone “deserves” something just because… was pushed by every manufacturer in order to push expensive cars, colored TVs, even hamburgers (remember that jingle – “you deserve a break today, so get out and get away…to McDonalds); thereby implanting the concept that you merit something simply by virtue of being alive.
A universal salary, free healthcare, free everything… it cannot be sustained and history has proven that many times; yet those eager to rule will promise this to the greedy, lazy and uneducated and they will succeed just as a Mamdani will in a city filled primarily of parasites who live off of the government in some sort of way (whether welfare of government employment).
How to remove this concept will only come with pain at this point since you rarely can convince someone to give up free stuff willingly.
I’d add that the giving away of free software and related services was a gross violation of capitalist principle, and specifically anti-dumping law. If we had micro-payments for software, the shape of the infosphere would be much less dominated by tech giants — who use freebie services as a means to keep small upstarts from competing.
As the owner of a business that relies heavily on graphic software to generate images for our various projects, we have always used Corel as our software program. The problem we have in hiring new people is that they are trained only in Adobe because they “give” that software to schools so that most graduates only learn this one simple software and find it difficult to learn our software. The act of “donating” this software to schools is a tax write off for them but it also insures that most young people will opt to continue to use Adobe and are corralled into that line of software and most never look elsewhere for better products. I do not see how schools can participate in such channeling of thought any more than I can condone the other indoctrination that happens in public schools.
Whimsicalmama, so VERY well stated! You define the situation so well that it almost feels self-explanatory. But that would deny your fine art of simply stating facts and drawing the lines from cause to effect. Even a simpleton should be able to understand your reasoning . . . unless he or she has been educated in public schools.
“Our welfare system nurtured that idea by creating a “safety net” so that everyone is going to be taken care of…”
We forgot the vital lessons of Hayek in his 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom; limited aid to those in need without interfering with the free marketplace.
*. That is a fine point we’ll made, whimsical. I don’t totally agree but in general I do. Can you address “reason” in a response for implementing government charity? It would add.
Thanks
Having been a broadcast engineer for over 25 years and the third rule of television applies here.
Its not show art, it’s show business. CBS has shareholders who will not tolerate those level of losses.
The good professor is right, the last thing they should want is an investigation. It is only going to highlight how much production cost, Colbert’s salary, shrinking audience, loss of revenue. It will be an embarrassment. But I would not put it past them to declare it was not a business decision but! But! BUT! TRUMP!!
Also the fact they not only fired Colbert, but are ending the entire show is a indicator of the decline of late night . . . well, I cannot call it comedy. Leftist propaganda?
“The good professor is right, the last thing they should want is an investigation.”
Maybe. So let’s have an investigation. Let’s see if trumps threats to CBS (and about every other news organization in the country) are a factor in the cancellation.
Read this, https://jonathanturley.org/2025/07/20/the-entitlement-syndrome-liberal-politicians-call-for-an-investigation-into-the-cancelation-of-stephen-colbert/comment-page-2/#comment-2535525
So much for the DNC political conspiracy theory.
What loser actually upvoted this pathetic comment?