The Narrative Is Everything

And Sometimes — As Evidenced by the End of The Late Show — It's All Ya Got

If you’re ruminating on the May 2026 winddown of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was announced by CBS parent company Paramount on Thursday, that’s acceptable. You might have bought into a few of the bullet points from The Narrative — you know that one, which we describe in Upper Case here, falling short of adding a “TM” symbol afterwards — that lead you to think “If A then B” about a few things with respect to the show:

• Everybody LOVED Stephen

• His RATINGS were off the chart

• He SPOKE TRUTH TO POWER

• It’s because of a LAWSUIT.

Is it, though? Let’s take a look…

The Narrative — see above bullet points — got way out in front of the facts.

In Tech Terms: Startup Spent Too Much, Can’t Raise Series F for a Failing Product

If you don’t see the changes to the modern media world, you are likely completely lost.

Ignore your thoughts about Colbert as a person; Ignore his politics, too — even though they contributed to his demise at the network — and think about this as a business decision.

No operational executive worth his salt in the modern business world would lose $40 million on a product year over year (over year, since Colbert started in 2015) and not find himself shown the door. In fact, the plug should have been pulled years ago.

Media Times, They Have Already Changed

Here’s where some would say “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” and I’d respond that that ship has sailed, that train has left the station, and traditional “mainstream” media has been — mostly — a failing business model for about a decade.

To wit, here’s a Chicago-centric piece from stalwart media reporter Robert Feder, who retired in 2022 and wrote this article in 2021:

Granted, this is the 3rd-largest media market in the country, but a 10:00 start time (in an era when people are going to bed earlier) here in flyover country can’t help with the lead-in to a genre of a show that fewer people are watching.

And those in that critical 25-to-54 age demo are the ones who, in theory, are most likely to watch Colbert and his brethren.

And there’s the above from a Fox News Channel press release, which kinda also says that the audience has already shifted. To Cable.

May I Interest You in a P&L Statement, Ma’am?

Colbert’s staff supposedly numbers 100 people. (I saw it on the internet so it must be true, right? Seriously, though, here’s a tweet.)

Even if the numbers are off — I’ve seen estimates online of a $15m salary for Colbert, and staff estimates of 80 to 200 — the economics are completely bonkers in this day and age.

So when the network tells you this is a financial decision, take that at face value.

And Stephen, we’ll see you on Substack in 9 months.