If Stephen Colbert's Show Lost $40-50 Million A Year Then No Wonder It's Gone

Do not blame Donald Trump for failed partisan propagandists

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert lost $40 million a year, according to the New York Post. A New York Times article reports the losses at $50 million a year. Of the people who still watch the show, “only 219,000 of those viewers—roughly 9%—fell within the coveted 18-49 demographic, a critical group for advertisers,” reports Cord Cutters News.

“This marks a significant drop from the show’s peak of 3.81 million viewers in 2018 and a 32% decline over the past five years, reflecting a broader trend of diminishing audiences for late-night programming.” Colbert reportedly employed over 200 people. Was this a TV show or a make-work program?

The main reason for this outcome is streaming. Linear television is struggling, Old Media formats most of all. “The genre, once a cultural touchstone with hosts like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, struggles to monetize online clips despite their viral reach,” Luke Bouma explains. “Competing shows, including The Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers, have also cut budgets, with NBC reducing The Tonight Show to four new episodes weekly and eliminating Meyers’ house band.”

Egad. If there is no house band, is it even late night TV anymore? No wonder the rest of the late show hosts are so worried. All of them must be losing loads of money at this point. Colbert could get better ratings with a handful of talented people and a YouTube channel. It might at least be profitable.

Of course, this is also fallout from the weaponization of comedy, more particularly comedy cancelation, for partisan political purposes. Imagine Jimmy Kimmel inviting Dave Chappelle on his show, anymore. Or Rob Schneider. The show hosts repelled half the American audience on purpose, declaring ‘this is not for you, anymore,’ so their audiences shrank by half.

Flashing signs can cue live audience laughter and applause; if it is weak, the laughter or applause can be improved with audio tracks. But there is no way to stimulate real laughter in the viewer at home, and it is impossible to win back an audience that has tuned you out and found something else to do with the hour before bed.

Consequences are not a conspiracy against Stephen Colbert. This is not the revenge of Trump. The market is speaking. Woke is simply broke. Make comedy great again.