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  • tl;dr - Late Night was killed by the Internet. This has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the increasing irrelevance of television.

    Late night is dying. This isn't a conspiracy. This isn't bowing to Trump. It's just good timing for Trump.

    Before I say anything else, I need to make one thing abundantly clear that these headlines keep being sketchy about. Colbert was not cancelled. His contract just wasn't renewed. That is a pretty big distinction. One of them is ending a contract pre-emptively, the other is just deciding to not continue with those services after an agreed upon point.

    Everyone keeps suggesting this is because of Trump but you're ignoring what has been happening to both the Late Show and Late Night in general for years. The entire format is dying. Most people don't watch the show live anymore, they do it on YouTube. Financially that's not viable for the studios. The cost they put into it doesn't equal out over the amount they can get back from YouTube. It doesn't make financial sense for them to keep making the show when no one is watching it on its primary method. They could try to pivot the entire show to YouTube but that also would be kinda hard to justify the cost.

    Like all of you in these comments seem to forget that Conan was reduced to 30 minutes before being cancelled, not having any Late Show replacement. Seem to forget that Corden was cancelled and replaced with an internet game show. Seem to forget that Samantha Bee's show wasn't replaced by any late show either. Or Lily Singh's. Or that the Outstanding Variety Talk Series has gone from 6 entries in 2019 to just 3 entries in 2025. Or the fact that Colbert has lost 1 million viewers from 2019 to 2025 while still retaining topdog for Late Night in viewership? If the other hosts didn't get bumps in viewers (they didn't) then it's because they just stopped watching...

    Why? First off, the entire market is saturated. You've got too many Late Night hosts to choose from, all of them in essentially the time slot or close to it. All of them then talk about the exact same thing. The only thing you're watching one show over the other for is the host or the guests that episode. Then there's the focus on American politics which makes sense because it's an American show but it alienates people outside the country from watching it on YouTube. And due to it having a heavy focus on American politics, like a lot does now a days, a lot of people are exhausted and don't want to tune in. They want an escape not another reminder. Not to mention the fact that attention spans have become shorter and we've gotten accustomed to on-demand viewing.

    Seth Meyers is probably the only host who could easily survive this. Fallon and Kimmel have way too much money dumped into their shows, granted Fallon has more shows so maybe more pull. Meyers runs everything on a shoestring and has a hard focus on politics, not splitting his attention. He focuses the majority of his non-Guest screentime on politics with stuff like A Closer Look as well so his show doesn't feel quite as pulled in two directions. The guest conversations are also super relaxed and casual, seeming to focus more on smaller celebrities than having constant big ones. He's already basically an Internet show so the transition for him is fine. Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon? They're too big, too grandiose, too expensive and now have far too little profit from the investment.

    Edit: Downvote me all you want. This isn't some grand plan to try and silence Colbert. The only people who listen to him are left leaning to begin with. He's not reaching anyone new or changing minds. He's not being the single educating point. Him being cancelled on its own might have a point but considering every late night show has been talking about the death of Late Night for years? This is a reach. Enjoy your bizarre conspiratorial nonsense. I'll go shave with Occam.

    Edit 2: I messed up and said Lily Singh's show wasn't replaced by another Late Show. It was. The Amber Ruffin Show.

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