Speaker 1: Callarogas shark media. On social media, Donald John Trump posted,
Speaker 1: I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was
Speaker 1: even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is
Speaker 1: next has even less talent than Colbert. Greg Gutfeld is
Speaker 1: better than all of them combined, including the more on
Speaker 1: on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show. Hello,
Speaker 1: I'm Johnny Mack. This is the Friday afternoon bonus edition
Speaker 1: of Daily Comedy News. This episode is entirely about Colbert
Speaker 1: quick housekeeping. The normal episodes will come out at the
Speaker 1: normal time Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and those are Colbert less,
Speaker 1: although I can tell you in the Saturday morning episode,
Speaker 1: I pointed out that Colbert didn't have any good monologue
Speaker 1: jokes this week. I recorded that before the news dropped
Speaker 1: around that I'm going to do these Colbert specific bonus episodes.
Speaker 1: There will be another one of these on Saturday. There
Speaker 1: will be another one of these on Sunday, and we'll
Speaker 1: take it from there. For this episode, I'm going to
Speaker 1: capture all the reactions. Let's start with the Writer's Guilds
Speaker 1: of America. They put out a statement on July second,
Speaker 1: Paramount agreed to settle a baseless lawsuit brought against sixty
Speaker 1: minutes in CBS News by President Trump for sixteen million dollars.
Speaker 1: On July fifteenth, during a regular show of The Late
Speaker 1: Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert went on air and called
Speaker 1: the settlements a quote big fat bribe unquote in exchange
Speaker 1: for a favorable decision on the proposed merger between Paramount
Speaker 1: and Skydants, a charge currently under investigation in California. Less
Speaker 1: than forty eight hours later, on July seventeenth, Paramount canceled
Speaker 1: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a show currently performing
Speaker 1: first in its time slot, giving vague references to the
Speaker 1: program's financial performance as the only explanation. For ten years,
Speaker 1: the show has been one of the most successful, beloved,
Speaker 1: and profitable programs on CBS, entertaining an audience of millions
Speaker 1: on late night television, on streaming services, and across social media.
Speaker 1: Given Paramount's recent capitulation to President Trump in the CBS
Speaker 1: News lawsuit, the Writer's Skill of America has significant concerns
Speaker 1: that the Late Show's cancelation as a bribe, sacrificing free
Speaker 1: speech to curry favor with the Trump administration as the
Speaker 1: company looks for merger approval. The statement continues, cancelations are
Speaker 1: part of the business, but a corporation terminating a show
Speaker 1: in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure
Speaker 1: is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society. Skipping ahead,
Speaker 1: the Writers Guild of America calls on New York State
Speaker 1: Attorney General Letitia James, no stranger to prosecuting Trump for
Speaker 1: illegal business practices, to join California and launch an investigation
Speaker 1: into potential wrongdoing at paramount. CBS had a statement. It reads,
Speaker 1: the Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end its historic
Speaker 1: run in May twenty twenty six, at the end of
Speaker 1: the broadcast season. We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will
Speaker 1: retire the Late Show franchise at that time. We are
Speaker 1: proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast
Speaker 1: will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced
Speaker 1: late night television. Now, let me pick that statement apart. Okay,
Speaker 1: so why are you bringing up if this is about finances,
Speaker 1: why are you saying we consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable. Stephen
Speaker 1: Colbert is replaceable. David Letterman was replaceable Johnny Carson was replaceable,
Speaker 1: Jack Parr was replaceable. Stephen Colbert is replaceable. But if
Speaker 1: you're ending the franchise over money, why you're bringing up
Speaker 1: that there is no franchise with which to replace him
Speaker 1: unless you're suggesting or your words are ahead of your brain,
Speaker 1: and there's it was a scenario where you had the
Speaker 1: Late Show without Stephen Colbert, perhaps possibly maybe who knows,
Speaker 1: for political reasons that you wanted Colbert out? Maybe so
Speaker 1: your deal gets through. Perhaps possibly maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't work for CBS or Paramount or Skydance. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but we consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and we'll
Speaker 1: retire the Late Show franchise at that time. Why are
Speaker 1: you bringing that up? Very strange. Latenighter dot Com will
Speaker 1: be a great resource during all this. Bill Carter is
Speaker 1: the author of The Late Shift, quite possibly the world's
Speaker 1: foremost expert in late night television. Bill Carter rights on
Speaker 1: Late Night Er under the headline CBS sites costing Colbert cancelation.
Speaker 1: The timing tells a different story. Bill writes. Trump has
Speaker 1: a long standing animist toward Colbert. Last September, he called
Speaker 1: him a complete and total loser, not funny, and all
Speaker 1: caps very boring. He literally called for CBS to quote
Speaker 1: terminate his contract unquote. He also has a history of
Speaker 1: threatening the licenses of broadcast networks with late night hosts
Speaker 1: who make fun of him. That didn't face Colbert, who
Speaker 1: has shown no signs of tempering his nightly puncturing of Trump.
Speaker 1: He returned from vacation this past Monday and labeled the
Speaker 1: CBS to ole to pay Trump off instead of fighting
Speaker 1: the sixty minute suit a big fat bribe. For all
Speaker 1: those reasons, it's hard to accept the stated reasoning behind
Speaker 1: today's announcement at face value. Bill points out that at
Speaker 1: the start of the twenty four to twenty five season,
Speaker 1: NBC reacted to economic pressure by dropping one night of
Speaker 1: The Tonight Show from five to four and eliminating the
Speaker 1: band on the Seth Meyers Show. Bill Carter writes, but
Speaker 1: CBS didn't try any of those cost saving moves, or
Speaker 1: any cost saving moves at all. It's simply cut off
Speaker 1: the franchise of the neck. It seems especially a considering
Speaker 1: that CBS earlier this year had quietly renewed its twelve
Speaker 1: thirty five AM show after midnight and only reversed course
Speaker 1: when Taylor Thomlinson quit the show. All of which is
Speaker 1: to say, as it's just a few months ago, every
Speaker 1: indication was that CBS intended to maintain its two hour
Speaker 1: late night block into the foreseeable future. Something happened to
Speaker 1: change that. Did the cost situation become completely untenable or
Speaker 1: was it Colbert's Trump centric comedy that became completely unacceptable. Separately,
Speaker 1: I've seen Bill Carter quoted in the Washington Post as saying,
Speaker 1: if CBS thinks for people just going to swallow this,
Speaker 1: they're really deluded. Some reactions from around the internet. Joe
Speaker 1: Scarborough said, it's terrible because you had the settlement with
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, and then you had Colbert and John Stewart
Speaker 1: criticizing that decision. Then a week later they're saying, oh, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we don't have the money to continue this. You can
Speaker 1: make that economic argument, but that economic argument should have
Speaker 1: been made weeks before this, or should have been made
Speaker 1: a couple months down the road. This just makes it
Speaker 1: look completely connected with the sixty minute settlement. Senator Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Warren said CBS canceled Colbert's show just three days after
Speaker 1: Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its sixteen
Speaker 1: million dollars settlement with Trump, a deal that looks like bribery.
Speaker 1: America deserves to know if his show was canceled for
Speaker 1: political reasons. Severance actor Adam Scott posted, love you, Steven.
Speaker 1: This is absolute BS and I for one, I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to the next ten months of shows. Ben Stiller
Speaker 1: tweeted sorry to hear CBS is canceling one of the
Speaker 1: best shows they have, wishing all the people who work
Speaker 1: so hard on that show all the best. Anderson Cooper
Speaker 1: on CNN said Stephen Colbert is smart, and he's funny
Speaker 1: and has actual conversations with people on his program XCM
Speaker 1: and reporter Jim Acosta commented on the story with the
Speaker 1: image of Marsha Brady from The Brady Bunch doing the shore.
Speaker 1: Jan Judd Apatow on Instagram, My admiration and appreciation for
Speaker 1: you is bottomless excited to see what other brilliants who
Speaker 1: put into the world. Katie Couric said, I'm so upset
Speaker 1: about this. I need more information. Rachel Ziegler said, I
Speaker 1: am extremely sad. I adore you, Steven. John Patiste, who
Speaker 1: used to lead Colbert's band, called him the greatest to
Speaker 1: ever do it. On Instagram, author Stephen King said Colbert canceled,
Speaker 1: Please tell me it's a joke. Jamie Lee Curtis was
Speaker 1: on the Red carpet and was asked about it, and
Speaker 1: she said it's bad. They're trying to silence people. John
Speaker 1: Cusack shared a clip of Stephen Colbert on social media
Speaker 1: and wrote, he's not groveling enough to American fascism. Larry
Speaker 1: Ellison needs his tax cuts, doesn't need comedians reminding people
Speaker 1: they're not cattle. Bernie Sanders said CBS's billionaire owners paid
Speaker 1: Trump sixteen million dollars to set all a Bobus lawsuit
Speaker 1: while trying to sell the network to sky Dance. Stephen Colbert,
Speaker 1: an extraordinary talent, the most popular late night host, slams
Speaker 1: the deal. Days later, he's fired. Do I think this
Speaker 1: is a coincidence? No? All caps. Andy Cohen said it's
Speaker 1: a sad day for late night television. I think it's
Speaker 1: a sad day for CBS. I think Stephen Colbert is
Speaker 1: a singular talent. He's going to have an incredible next chapter.
Speaker 1: I can't believe CBS is turning off the lights at
Speaker 1: eleven thirty after the local news. I'm stunned he's one
Speaker 1: of three late night shows deep worthy enough for an
Speaker 1: Emmy nomination. He produces a brilliant show. Bill Burr posted
Speaker 1: on thread sad news about Colbert, but I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: purely a financial descis It's not like CBS whatever, cancel
Speaker 1: a comedy show for political reasons, and he included an
Speaker 1: image of the Smothers brothers below that. Jimmy Fallon said
Speaker 1: he was just as shocked as everyone. I really thought
Speaker 1: I'd ride this out with him for years to come.
Speaker 1: Seth Meyers said, for as great as a comedian host
Speaker 1: he is, Colbert was an even better person and joke
Speaker 1: that Colbert can no longer use the excuse that he's
Speaker 1: too busy to hang out. Jimmy Kimmel went on Instagram
Speaker 1: and wrote, love you, Stephen, f you and all your
Speaker 1: Sheldon's CBS. The New York Times writes executive stressed in
Speaker 1: the announcement that the cut was purely a financial decision.
Speaker 1: The Times asked, is that the truth or merely truthy?
Speaker 1: They then talk about the settlements and write many legal
Speaker 1: experts said the deal was an unnecessary concession and a
Speaker 1: frivolous case. At minimum, it undermined one of TV journalism's
Speaker 1: most accomplished independent voices, that being sixty minutes, talk show
Speaker 1: hosts have bit in the hand that signs the contracts.
Speaker 1: Before Lutterman needled NBC and it's then parent, General Electric.
Speaker 1: But back then the issues didn't involve conflicts with a press.
Speaker 1: Is it willing to pull any necessary levers to punish
Speaker 1: and influence media outlets? Now? Paramount wants to assure us
Speaker 1: that the cancelation of one of the president's most famous
Speaker 1: critics is totally coincidentally business, and sure it absolutely could be.
Speaker 1: The Independent wrote that they understand Colbert's program had become
Speaker 1: costly to run over the years, and it was potentially
Speaker 1: a dream on the network's bottom line, but many people
Speaker 1: working at CBS don't fully believe the narrative. One senior
Speaker 1: staffer at CBS told The Independent that no one at
Speaker 1: the network is buying that it's a financial decision, adding
Speaker 1: that the demise of the flagship left everyone stunned, including
Speaker 1: famous comedians that the source said they knew. Another staffer
Speaker 1: told The Independent how that they had been told the
Speaker 1: show had been on the chopping block for a few
Speaker 1: years because it was very expensive to produce, but at
Speaker 1: the same time didn't think that was the reason for
Speaker 1: the sudden announcement. A staffer said, many of us think
Speaker 1: this was part and parcel of the Trump shakedown settlement.
Speaker 1: USA today wonders if Colbert can't survive this this landscape,
Speaker 1: it's not clear if anyone can. According to Late Nighter
Speaker 1: dot Com, Late Show was leading the pack in ratings
Speaker 1: with an average of two point four to one to
Speaker 1: seven million viewers for the three months that in June.
Speaker 1: Kimmel and Fallon were far behind, averaging one point seventy
Speaker 1: seven and one point nine respectively. Well, tonight, youoent third place,
Speaker 1: but discuss that at a different time. Cnn I talked
Speaker 1: about the financial picture. They quote Guideline and add data
Speaker 1: firm that estimates that the network at late night shows
Speaker 1: earned a four hundred and thirty nine million dollars in
Speaker 1: AD revenue in twenty eighteen and only two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty million in twenty twenty four, decline a fifty percent.
Speaker 1: CBS had been worried about the dynamics for months, even
Speaker 1: the last few years, according to two people familiar with
Speaker 1: the situation, While Colbert was officially told Wednesday. Apparently, executives
Speaker 1: have been talking about the costs for several weeks, now
Speaker 1: holding off on final judgment to allow Stephen Colbert and
Speaker 1: the staff to enjoy the July fourth hiatus. Variety says.
Speaker 1: One of the sources say executives didn't want to force
Speaker 1: a pay cut or call for trims, and couldn't look
Speaker 1: away from declines and ad support for the entire format.
Speaker 1: They point out CBS treated Colbert a lot like his predecessor,
Speaker 1: Letterman wasn't always eager to take on product placement projects
Speaker 1: or produce sitcoms or game shows, and CBS respected the
Speaker 1: decision because of his standing. They felt the same way
Speaker 1: about Colbert, and yet rivals were picking up many more
Speaker 1: of these projects, like a bar sponsored by Anheuser Busch
Speaker 1: and Heineken that had a prominent place on Cordon. Kimmel
Speaker 1: has long embraced doing commercials in show. Fallon takes part
Speaker 1: in an ad deal with Ford Motor Company. Those extras
Speaker 1: help the network and make the host more of a
Speaker 1: full time ambassador, according to one person familiar with the
Speaker 1: mechanics of late night television. Variety points out people familiar
Speaker 1: with the matter, say, the Colbert CBS relationship was never
Speaker 1: a tense one, and no Colbert eagerly took on whatever
Speaker 1: extra duties the network suggested. He helped launch a comedic
Speaker 1: sports special built around pickleball, and took a hand in
Speaker 1: producing After Midnight and promoting Taylor Tomlinson. And this is
Speaker 1: very interesting. While the decision may look like blowback for
Speaker 1: Colbert's commentary, executives weren't prepared to make a move in
Speaker 1: May when they could have used it to win extra
Speaker 1: ad support in the industry's annual upfront ad sales. More
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to make it without speaking to
Speaker 1: Colbert directly, something they didn't want to do while he
Speaker 1: was on vacation. But they couldn't wait, say, till the
Speaker 1: start of next TV season. Late night writers and producers
Speaker 1: typically signed one year deals August to August. When contracts
Speaker 1: tied to the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six programming
Speaker 1: cycle went out to agents, they would only keep people
Speaker 1: employed through May. CBS executives knew the news of the
Speaker 1: decision would leak and quickly, so they had to make
Speaker 1: the move. My take all right, loudly and clearly. I'm
Speaker 1: on Team Colbert and all this. This is terrible. It's
Speaker 1: a shame that the Late Show franchise is ending after
Speaker 1: thirty years, really terrible. I like Colbert. He seems to
Speaker 1: be a good guy. I've only heard great things about him,
Speaker 1: never met him, But I've never seen one bad word
Speaker 1: about Colbert. Of the timing, Yeah, it does seem suspicious.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, I've been a longtime media executive,
Speaker 1: and I'll talk about this more over the weekend. There
Speaker 1: are some bonus episodes coming about this topic. If the
Speaker 1: show's losing like forty million dollars a year, why wouldn't
Speaker 1: you just error prices right rerun? I mean, seriously, it's
Speaker 1: a busy this at the end of the day that
Speaker 1: many fewer people going to watch a you know, they're
Speaker 1: on a Seinfeld rerun, they're on a Big Bang Theory rerun.
Speaker 1: It probably won't do all that worse. And the other one,
Speaker 1: I'd have to ask everyone, when's the last time you
Speaker 1: watched The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? Now, maybe for
Speaker 1: you personally listener last night might be the answer. I
Speaker 1: think for me, and I like the guy, and I
Speaker 1: like the idea. I think, honestly, the last time I
Speaker 1: watched The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was his first night.
Speaker 1: It's just I don't watch. As much as I love
Speaker 1: Late Night, I don't watch any of it live. I'm
Speaker 1: not up at eleven thirty, and if I am, I'm
Speaker 1: not watching live TV. So you know, times change. This
Speaker 1: is very painful for all of us. But and again
Speaker 1: I am suspicious. My spidy sense is screaming like everyone else.
Speaker 1: But that aside, it's not the craziest idea to just,
Speaker 1: like I said, just to air Price's right reruns. All right,
Speaker 1: that is your bonus episode for Friday afternoon. Like I said,
Speaker 1: normal episode in on Saturday morning. I won't talk about
Speaker 1: this at all. Was already recorded before any of this
Speaker 1: news break Saturday afternoon. At some point there'll be another
Speaker 1: bonus episode. I'll schedule it for noon Eastern. So at
Speaker 1: noon Eastern, you've got a Saturday bonus episode Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: a normal Sunday episode already in the can. I won't
Speaker 1: talk about Colbert at all. Sunday at noon, another bonus
Speaker 1: episode about Colbert. All right, appreciate you listening.