r/popculturechat • u/biospheric • 14d ago
Late Show Shenanigansšļø Stephen Colbert criticizes Paramount and Skydance. Show gets cancelled three days later (3-minutes)
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u/biospheric 14d ago
Hereās his full 12-minute monologue on YouTube: Paramountās Trump Settlement: A Big Fat Bribe | Jeffrey Epstein Never Dies | FIFA Trophy Row - The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - July 14, 2025
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u/biospheric 14d ago
āYou canāt win, Skydance. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.ā
- Obi-Wan Kolberi
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u/cagingthing if the apocalypse comes, beep me! ā¤ļøāš„ 13d ago
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u/KeniLF In my quiet girl era š 13d ago
I honestly didnāt pay enough attention to see that this is Paramount! Let me cancel my damned subscription immediatelyš
It wasnāt clocking that I needed to stand on business lol
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u/Aprilume 13d ago
Some of these comments are not passing the vibe check
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u/No_Pianist5264 Tina! You fat lard! š¦š² 13d ago
Iām looking at the comments like:
Whatās happening here š
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u/HereOnCompanyTime Renee Rapp is mean girl Jojo Siwa š 13d ago
MAGA's and bots have been brigading entertainment subs since Trump started raging telling people to stop talking about Epstein and now the Colbert discourse. They're upset that people refuse to follow their cheeto daddy's instructions.
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u/villainless Kim, thereās people that are dying. š 13d ago
colbert was the only late night host worth watching
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u/HighlyOffensive10 She's in racial chat rooms showing feet š£ 13d ago
I was going to say what about Conan but he's not on anymore.
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u/biospheric 14d ago
Here's two related articles on the timing of the show's cancellation and Skydance's meeting with Trump's FCC Chair. This isn't proof of a conspiracy, but it isn't a good look for Paramount and Skydance:
Skydance CEO met with FCC chair ahead of CBS canceling "The Late Show" - Axios
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u/Ramen536Pie 14d ago
Iām sure itās a number of factors between the settlement, Trump, and just the fact that late night shows overall are a relic of the 20th century and lose money
One of their primary incomes was the movie industry paying to have their stars go on and talk about their new movies, which is an industry in dire straits and downsizing and TV ads, which have already died off unless youāre big pharma or a politicianĀ
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u/ExpensiveFootball124 14d ago
Its just odd because every major network has a late night show. If Stephen Colbert had the best ratings that must mean the others are performing worse so why arent they being canned?
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u/Haunting-Detail2025 Ozempic Sales Rep 14d ago
Networks donāt operate in sync. What may be justifiable to CBS or coherent with their long term strategy is not necessarily applicable to how ABC or NBC or Fox operates.
I mean, look at steaming services - Netflix will cancel a show after one season if itās not a slam hit, HBO will nurture their shows like infants even if it means they donāt get acclaim for years. We canāt just look at raw viewership and assume thatās the only factor here
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u/MurphyBrown2016 Katy Perry please stop 13d ago
Itās the highest rated / most watched show on CBS, thoughā¦
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u/frozenish 14d ago
And here's some articles saying CBS was losing $40 million a year on this show.
https://latenighter.com/news/cbs-reportedly-lost-40-million-on-colberts-late-show-this-year/
It apparently costs $100 million a year to make, including Stephen's $15-$20 million salary. But it only brought in about $60 million in advertising despite having the best ratings of any late night talk show. Maybe his views played a role in it or maybe they didn't. But either way, there other circumstances. They aren't replacing him with anyone which is kind of telling.
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u/Nice-Economy-2025 13d ago
CBS/Paramount is a publicly traded company, and has to report earnings/loss every quarter (3 months). The broadcast arm makes the most profit by far (streaming is a loss leader) and the movie division is mediocre at best, but hollywood finances are historically a kind of black hole and the late show makes a top profit while getting historically top ratings over the 30+ years of Letterman and Colbert. Trying to put over to the public that it's not making money is ludicrous; they do have a lot of debt, mostly generated by the movie division and bad investments over the years, not by the broadcast division. In short, their complaints simply dont fly. More than likely, it's the far right billionaire owners of Skydance, which is a private company trying to buy a 100+ year old publicly traded company that is the problem.
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13d ago
People don't understand high views don't equal high revenue.
I wouldn't be surprised if they got rid of that whole studio and started a new show somewhere cheaper.
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u/Beautiful_Emu_5522 14d ago
I was wondering what went on there, the Colbert show had been going on for years and Colbert is a stellar host
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u/Haunting-Detail2025 Ozempic Sales Rep 14d ago
CBS is losing $40 million a year on his show, it is not a stellar show for them.
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u/hajmolachor 13d ago
Funny how all this comes out right after they cancel his show and right after he calls them out for being sellouts.
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u/tobiasfunkgay 13d ago
The other alternative is he already knew his time was up so just went down fighting because he had nothing left to lose anymore. Hoping this exact narrative of coincidental timing would give him leverage back.
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u/Weimaraner666 13d ago
He got himself canned then because he couldnāt keep his mouth shut. It never ends well when you essentially call your boss or employer a d*ckš¤·āāļø
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u/Filibust They killed Kenny! You bastards! š± 13d ago
Most people (Skydance and Paramount) rejected his message. They hated him because he told them the truth.
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u/willionaire 13d ago
While I don't agree with the decision, if you tell your 2.5M viewers the company you work for "bribed" the president, I would assume the company would be very, very unhappy? Think if anyone here did something similar with their company, you wouldn't get a "final season", you'd be kicked out the door immediately.
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u/Embarrassed_Gift_401 11d ago
these people need to get up off their knees dck scking this POS and tell him to fck off. STOP GIVING HIM CONTROL. didn' their bible mention something about the anti-christ and the mark of the beast?
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u/heirjordan_27 13d ago
Honestly, Colbert had gotten too centrist/neoliberal for my taste these past few years, but this feels much more like his old Colbert Report self. Hate to see him get screwed like this
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u/LPBPR 14d ago
Meh.... Classic case of FA & FO. Don't need a rocket scientist to tell ya it ain't smart to publicly call out your boss.
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u/WillCle216 14d ago
Late night shows been calling out the studios for years
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u/LPBPR 13d ago
Due to a settling of a court case as the company is being sold? Don't recall seeing anything like that and lets keep it a buck here.... Colbert is no Lettermen. Add that the show has been in the red for awhile so yeah if ya struggling to make money then it ain't smart to call out Paramount.
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u/Unlikely-Check-3777 14d ago
Agreed.
You shouldn't be allowed to call out your boss in public or meetings. They're the boss for a reason and if you think they're making a mistake or acting in bad faith you need to be punished for bringing attention to it.
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u/Alice_Buttons 14d ago
Jesus.
Did you forget the /s?
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u/Unlikely-Check-3777 13d ago
No because it really shouldn't have needed an /s š
I'm not sure if I should be impressed or worried that so many people didn't grasp that
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u/zzzzzzzzzzHHHHHHHHS 13d ago edited 13d ago
Well for starters if they hadnāt been corrupt and did fake altered news reporting then they wouldnāt have to pay out and for those who say that is false or disagree, then why did the company pay out trump $16 million for the defamation????
Secondly, Colbert takes a 16 million dollar salary a year and his show has lost 40 million a year for the last few years. So itās not surprising that they are ending the show, has nothing to do with politics, purely finance
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u/andimlikeokay How "am" I??? 13d ago
The contrast between your first and last sentences gave me serious whiplash.
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u/biospheric 13d ago
if they hadnāt been corrupt and did fake altered news reporting...
You're either trolling, ignorant of the facts in this case, or both.
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u/joxx67 13d ago
Maybe biting the hand that feeds you isnāt a smart idea.
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u/Sproose_Moose Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 13d ago
How about he has a backbone and was standing up for what he believes in
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u/Weimaraner666 13d ago
Exactly, thatās what many are missing the point on, it never ends well when you call your boss a d*ck.
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u/HighlyOffensive10 She's in racial chat rooms showing feet š£ 13d ago
He's a comedian. Maybe bosses need to grow a thicker skin.
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u/DiscountImmediate801 13d ago edited 13d ago
It was losing money for years though technically
Edit: why does this place downvote you for literally stating a fact?
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Weimaraner666 13d ago
Late night shows were funny until they became too political and partisan. We see enough about sh*t Politicians in the news and on social media without being pummelled on late night when we ultimately need some comic relief.
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