Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Friday, July eighteenth. Colbert is out.
Speaker 1: The Late Show has been canceled. This is a shocker
Speaker 1: in the world of entertainment, But if you've been paying
Speaker 1: attention to late night the past few years, this is
Speaker 1: not a shocker at all. Folks of that welcome to
Speaker 1: this edition of Amy and TJ. Rooves. I guess first
Speaker 1: things first, it is I don't care what you say.
Speaker 1: You wake up to the news that the Late Show,
Speaker 1: not to just he's out, but the show is going away.
Speaker 1: That's just a shock.
Speaker 2: It's a shock because this is also the number one,
Speaker 2: the highest rated late night show of them all. Now,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel might be slightly up in the demo, but
Speaker 2: in terms of overall viewers, Stephen Colbert, The Late Show
Speaker 2: with Stephen Colbert is the number one and has been
Speaker 2: the number one late night show for quite some time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. He, I guess he found his footing. Well, was
Speaker 1: at twenty sixteen when Trump was running for Elex and
Speaker 1: all the other late night comics didn't want to touch Trump.
Speaker 1: And you go back to then when we were still
Speaker 1: getting adjusted to Trump. We're kind of comfortable now we
Speaker 1: know him, But then he was a shock to the
Speaker 1: system and people didn't want to go after him on
Speaker 1: late night. Colbert made the decision. He was after him relentlessly,
Speaker 1: night after night, and you know what, he became number
Speaker 1: one and never gave it up. It's true he never
Speaker 1: gave it up. But here we are. He's still on top,
Speaker 1: has been doing his thing. So everybody wakes up like,
Speaker 1: what happened? Where is this coming from? And this has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with financials that we will get into.
Speaker 1: But Colbert was the one rhobes last night to I
Speaker 1: guess break the news to his audience. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: sitting in there, thinking you're about to watch some fun
Speaker 1: show and he starts off with this, Yeah, explains that
Speaker 1: to him.
Speaker 2: And the audience booed, and he said, I feel exactly
Speaker 2: the same way. But it was Yeah, it was totally
Speaker 2: shocking to hear him say I'm not leaving, I'm not
Speaker 2: being replaced. The show is done. It's over in May,
Speaker 2: and he talked about the two hundred people who work
Speaker 2: on the show, who loved the show, who put their
Speaker 2: heart and soul into the show. Everyone is losing their
Speaker 2: jobs May.
Speaker 1: Because that's when his contract was up. He did sign
Speaker 1: a new deal, three year deal that now is supposed
Speaker 1: to come up in May of twenty twenty six, and
Speaker 1: that is going to be it for the show. He
Speaker 1: started out with the audience last night saying, and I
Speaker 1: quote this was his statement. Next year will be our
Speaker 1: last season. The network will be ending the late show
Speaker 1: in May, not just the end of our show, but
Speaker 1: the end of the late show on CBS. I'm not
Speaker 1: being replaced, this is just going away. He went on
Speaker 1: to say, it's a fantastic job. I wish somebody else
Speaker 1: was getting it, and it's a job I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another
Speaker 1: ten months. Through in a little joke there a jab
Speaker 1: at his team, But when he said that, that's something
Speaker 1: I related to, like, Yes, this is your baby and
Speaker 1: you're in charge of it right now, and you know
Speaker 1: you're going to have to let it go. You want
Speaker 1: to leave it in good hands. That's something we didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to do. I mean, really a much
Speaker 1: different scale. But when he said that, like wow, he
Speaker 1: actually wish he was being replaced.
Speaker 2: It resonated with us because of the headlines of everything
Speaker 2: involved with GMA three too. Yes, you know you when
Speaker 2: you put your heart and soul into something like Colbert has,
Speaker 2: you wanted to continue, you wanted to thrive. When you leave,
Speaker 2: you don't want it to with her, and you certainly
Speaker 2: don't want it to die. And that's exactly what he's
Speaker 2: facing right now. And the network was very quick. CBS
Speaker 2: was very quick to point out that the decision to
Speaker 2: cancel Colbert's show was purely a financial decision. They said
Speaker 2: it was a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in
Speaker 2: late night, and they made clear they pointed out it
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with the show's performance or content
Speaker 2: or other matters happening at Paramount. Why you think they
Speaker 2: added that rogues because it it look this is it.
Speaker 2: You pointed out earlier when we first started the podcast
Speaker 2: that Stephen Colbert has been an outs spoken critic of
Speaker 2: President Trump since twenty sixteen. It was just on Monday
Speaker 2: night that Colbert pointed out this settlement that happened between
Speaker 2: President Trump and Paramount, the owner of CBS. They settled
Speaker 2: for a sixteen million dollar settlement in a lawsuit where
Speaker 2: President Trump was suing CBS over a sixteen minutes interview
Speaker 2: they did with Kamala Harris so Colbert called that settlement
Speaker 2: a big fat bribe, and he even made fun of
Speaker 2: reports out there that somehow Paramount was going to try
Speaker 2: to please Trump by putting pressure on Colbert. So that
Speaker 2: was just a few nights ago, and then I believe
Speaker 2: it was two nights later, Colbert gets the call that
Speaker 2: tells him not only is he out, the show is
Speaker 2: done and over.
Speaker 1: It's tough to imagine that that, given all he has
Speaker 1: said over the years, that that set people off. But
Speaker 1: there's a very very sensitive time, and that timing is
Speaker 1: just a little too close. It's if they had been
Speaker 1: thinking about this for the past few weeks, I still
Speaker 1: would have waited to get some separation between him making
Speaker 1: that statement. So why that almost lends itself to the
Speaker 1: idea that this was in some way a reaction to
Speaker 1: what he said, but they claim it's not. But you
Speaker 1: can tell just how fiery things have been robes the
Speaker 1: fact that this was a really long statement, frankly that
Speaker 1: CBS put out, but they made sure to include that bit.
Speaker 2: They knew the criticism was coming, they knew the speculation
Speaker 2: was coming. They knew that people were going to connect
Speaker 2: dots and say Stephen Colbert and The Late Show with
Speaker 2: Stephen Colbert is being canceled because of the bed that
Speaker 2: Paramount is in with President Trump. Because yes, they had
Speaker 2: the sixteen million dollars settlement over this lawsuit, but there
Speaker 2: was a reason why a lot of folks pointed to
Speaker 2: them making that settlement, because they are in the middle
Speaker 2: of a multi billion dollar merger with a movie studio
Speaker 2: Skydance that requires approval from the Trump administration for it
Speaker 2: to go forward. So a lot of folks believe that
Speaker 2: this settlement, this lawsuit was settled because Paramount wants to
Speaker 2: be in good standing with President Trump so this multi
Speaker 2: billion dollar merger can move forward.
Speaker 1: And of course, if that merger does eventually happen, everybody's
Speaker 1: going to come back and say, aha, it worked. Aha,
Speaker 1: see ah, Look they bought their way out. Look they
Speaker 1: fired their way out. They did everything they needed to
Speaker 1: do to get this billion plus dout. We're talking about
Speaker 1: a huge, huge sale of this company, and that's been
Speaker 1: talked about for long and that's the reason for the
Speaker 1: sixteen million dollars element. This is the reason for that's
Speaker 1: what they are saying out there. So I just found
Speaker 1: it interesting that this long statement in the second frame
Speaker 1: of it. Essentially, they included that line before. They didn't
Speaker 1: even wait for y'all to accuse us. That's one I
Speaker 1: always find it if honey, don't know what your mama
Speaker 1: always say, who's speaking first is probably the guilty one, right,
Speaker 1: the one that runs up. Uh, it wasn't me. I'm
Speaker 1: having nothing to do with it, Like, I ain't even
Speaker 1: ask you. That's what it felt like.
Speaker 2: Yep, it certainly so.
Speaker 1: That reaction obviously came quickly from all over the place.
Speaker 1: It came from some members of Congress, It's come from everybody,
Speaker 1: of course, on the Internet. It comes from a lot
Speaker 1: of media reporters and observers. And the reaction I guess
Speaker 1: so many of us robes were waiting for, was from
Speaker 1: President Trump, and we did get it just a short
Speaker 1: time ago, shortly before this recording, as we're sitting here,
Speaker 1: he did put out a statement.
Speaker 2: Yes, President Trump went onto his favorite social media site
Speaker 2: truth Social and said this, I absolutely love that Colbert
Speaker 2: got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.
Speaker 1: You know, that doesn't surprise us could expect something like
Speaker 1: that from the president. What surprised me maybe a little,
Speaker 1: and maybe he was smart enough not to say it.
Speaker 1: Knew not to say it. I thought he would take
Speaker 1: credit for it.
Speaker 2: He hasn't taken credit for it. But then he went
Speaker 2: on further to let other people know that they too
Speaker 2: might be next in line. Trump went on to say,
Speaker 2: I hear Jimmy Kemmel is next. Has even less talent
Speaker 2: than Colbert. Trump also said Greg Guttfield is better than
Speaker 2: all of them combined, including the moron on NBC who
Speaker 2: ruined the once Great Tonight Show, referring to Jimmy Fallon
Speaker 2: but didn't name him specifically.
Speaker 1: YEA, if you don't know who Greg Guttfield is, he's
Speaker 1: the guy. He is the king of Late Night, to
Speaker 1: be honest with you, right now on television, but he's
Speaker 1: on Fox News. He has been doing Gangbusters over there.
Speaker 1: We'll get into more of him here shortly. But that
Speaker 1: was President Trump. Schiff, actually Senator Schiff was Now, wow,
Speaker 1: that's you're talking about two Trump critics sitting down together.
Speaker 1: He was a guest on Colbert's show last night, and
Speaker 1: he had something to say almost immediately after the taping
Speaker 1: as well. And this, I guess is one of the
Speaker 1: more high profile people robes that is suggesting that something is.
Speaker 2: Up yeah, Adam Swift tweeted, this just finished taping with
Speaker 2: Stephen Colbert, who announced his show with canceled. If Paramount
Speaker 2: and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the
Speaker 2: public deserves to know and deserves better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that type of speculation will continue because we
Speaker 1: don't understand how a show. There are a few I mean,
Speaker 1: we could start naming them right now that are institutions
Speaker 1: in television. And you would go with the morning shows,
Speaker 1: well Today and jim A. You would go with certainly
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show, the Late Show, fallen, excuse me, Kimmel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. There are some institutions. If somebody told you
Speaker 1: sixty minutes was going to go away, if somebody told
Speaker 1: you one of these staples is going to go yeah, wait,
Speaker 1: what's happening? And the show this one, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: robes there have actually only been two hosts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's David Letterman and Stephen Colbert.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that either.
Speaker 1: I thought there were a few more sprinkled in that
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show had several more, even though we know
Speaker 1: that two main ones but had some. These are only
Speaker 1: two guys who have ever been in charge of that show.
Speaker 2: And it was actually surprising to me because it seems
Speaker 2: like so much time and so many things have happened
Speaker 2: over this past decade. But the fact that Letterman didn't
Speaker 2: step away until twenty fifteen, and that is when we
Speaker 2: had the new host take up for Stephen Colbert, and
Speaker 2: so he's been doing it for ten years. But it's
Speaker 2: amazing to go back and look that Letterman had this
Speaker 2: show for twenty plus years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you go back and they this was a
Speaker 1: big deal, a big coup for CBS in the first place,
Speaker 1: because Letterman had a successful show going over at NBC
Speaker 1: has on Late night show. They plucked him. This was
Speaker 1: a big deal, and he builds a powerhouse at CBS
Speaker 1: and turns that show into what it is today. Oh,
Speaker 1: what it is today, what it's going to be for
Speaker 1: the next Way's a nine.
Speaker 2: Months ten months, yes, ten months.
Speaker 1: But it's they tried and tried and reason this is
Speaker 1: such an institution. They were trying to keep up with
Speaker 1: the Tonight's show at the time. When you remember the
Speaker 1: Pat Say Jack show, Oh no.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was like, wait, Pat Say Jack, yes, but
Speaker 2: the show, no, we had a late night show, no
Speaker 2: will of fortune.
Speaker 1: They tried to get a show going with him, he
Speaker 1: couldn't compete with the Tonight Show. That show was canceled
Speaker 1: before him merv Griffin, Wow, I had a show on
Speaker 1: That one did okay, but there was some kind of
Speaker 1: contractual disputars whatever. That one went wet. So they had
Speaker 1: been trying for a long time at late night. They
Speaker 1: nailed it, finally created this juggernaut, got two great comedians
Speaker 1: to do it, and it's over.
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy too. Three days ago, the ratings
Speaker 2: came out for the second quarter of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: It was a news article published again a few days ago,
Speaker 2: and they literally said the headline, Stephen Colbert is holding
Speaker 2: on to the top spot in his hour, Greg Guttfield
Speaker 2: dominating his slot. But still they were praising Colbert's ratings, saying,
Speaker 2: he's averaging two point four million, and that is fairly
Speaker 2: significant given what the other shows are doing. He's well
Speaker 2: aware of Jimmy Kimmel's at one point seven. This was
Speaker 2: the last quarter, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Speaker 2: is one point one eight. So you look at those
Speaker 2: numbers and Colbert was if you can say dominating, but yes,
Speaker 2: he was doing extremely well.
Speaker 1: Dominating, but dismal. That's the problem. Your dominating ratings are
Speaker 1: dismal compared to years past. You will find plenty of
Speaker 1: write up to tell you advertising dollars in late night
Speaker 1: have gone down some fifty percent in the past five
Speaker 1: to seven years, folks, fifty percent in ad dollars. That
Speaker 1: is just not going to be sustainable when you have
Speaker 1: these big budgets. Another thing people don't realize. Like I said,
Speaker 1: folks who have been paying attention, this is not a shocker.
Speaker 1: There have been not even breadcrumbs. I mean, there have
Speaker 1: been like flares going off showing the way that Late
Speaker 1: Night is going. We're gonna get into that, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna say to yourself after you hear some of this, wow,
Speaker 1: I see why they did it. All right, folks, We
Speaker 1: continue now with this really shocking news, not just that
Speaker 1: Stephen Colbert is going to be out at the Late
Speaker 1: Show on CBS, but the show itself. I guess a
Speaker 1: late night institution at this point that David Letterman started
Speaker 1: is going to be going away. They are going to
Speaker 1: cancel the show altogether. It won't be coming back after
Speaker 1: May when Colbert's contract is up. But Robes we've been
Speaker 1: talking about, you were given the ratings. He is on
Speaker 1: top of ratings, but the ratings are so far down
Speaker 1: from where they used to be. So the idea now
Speaker 1: of Fallin, where we see Fallon everywhere. He's starring in this,
Speaker 1: he's at the Christmas Prey, he's doing all these things.
Speaker 1: One million viewers is not going to be okay.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: One million viewers is almost a staggering thought in late
Speaker 1: night television, giving the three million plus that were used
Speaker 1: to be gotten just a few years ago. Yes, and
Speaker 1: certainly in the heyday of the Linos and the lettermans
Speaker 1: of the world. To think now the numbers we're talking
Speaker 1: about and the demo numbers. He's number one and overall,
Speaker 1: but he's number two in the demo, right, and that
Speaker 1: demo is eighteen to forty nine year olds, And we're
Speaker 1: talking about two hundred and twenty thousand in the demo. Kimmel,
Speaker 1: that's Kimmel's number. Fallon has one hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 1: thousand in the demo. You're making a face right there
Speaker 1: like this. Yes, because we have worked in television, we
Speaker 1: know what those numbers mean. And that's RUSS for guys
Speaker 1: making fifteen million dollars a year.
Speaker 2: It's unjustifiable, is what it is. But it's interesting to me.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't they have asked and maybe Colbert would not
Speaker 2: have considered this, But we're seeing this in network news
Speaker 2: in other shows where hosts that are making huge amounts
Speaker 2: of money when the show's dwindling audience doesn't support those salaries,
Speaker 2: they've asked hosts to take a cut, maybe even cut
Speaker 2: their salary by thirty percent, by fifty It doesn't even
Speaker 2: appear that that was offered. There was no negotiation. According
Speaker 2: to the way Cole Bear said it, it was a
Speaker 2: shock to him. He got a phone call and it
Speaker 2: was done over see you later. You got ten months
Speaker 2: by And that is what's shocking about it. They weren't
Speaker 2: even trying to maybe downsize or find a way to
Speaker 2: cut costs to keep it alive. They just said, you're
Speaker 2: done the cost cutting.
Speaker 1: And again I didn't really we're not late night watchers,
Speaker 1: but I did not realize this show only tapes four
Speaker 1: nights a week, right, because they're cutting costs. Do you
Speaker 1: know that Fallon show only tapes four nights a week? Yes,
Speaker 1: for production costs the other as well. All three late
Speaker 1: night shows on the networks have done that. They've made
Speaker 1: that move because they're trying to cut costs. What does
Speaker 1: that tell you, now, CBS. That's not to say the
Speaker 1: writing might have been on the wall. You remember the
Speaker 1: Late Late Show, Late Late Show with James Cordon.
Speaker 2: That's our that's our the time our alarm clocks off
Speaker 2: pretty much.
Speaker 1: But by the time that show was we've been wrapping up.
Speaker 2: We're waking up. So no, the point is, I've not
Speaker 2: seen it, but I do remember it. I know of it.
Speaker 1: See, I didn't even remember that the show got canceled,
Speaker 1: The Late Late Show with James Cordon. Yes, was it
Speaker 1: Karaoke the Car Karaoke Guy that everybody loves. That show
Speaker 1: got canceled two years ago. It went away. Why because
Speaker 1: it brought in forty five million dollars in revenue and
Speaker 1: it costs sixty million dollars to put on. Dang, So
Speaker 1: CBS made that move years ago. Again, that report was,
Speaker 1: that report has been out there, But they made that
Speaker 1: move because it just wasn't sustainable, and in its place
Speaker 1: they put a like a game show with the comedian. Now,
Speaker 1: it just happened to that it went away because the
Speaker 1: comedian wants to go back on the road touring. CBS said,
Speaker 1: we're just not gonna continue the show, We're not gonna replace,
Speaker 1: So they have given away essentially a late night time
Speaker 1: slot that has been there for decades. So they are
Speaker 1: recognizing that late night is not going to be sustainable
Speaker 1: for years to come. And cobear the number one is
Speaker 1: experience in.
Speaker 2: That now and part of the problem. The folks who
Speaker 2: are up late night are the younger viewers, which are
Speaker 2: the the one type of viewer that all advertisers want.
Speaker 2: They want them young, They want to bring them into
Speaker 2: their brands to stay with them for the rest of
Speaker 2: their lives. Once you get to a certain age, they
Speaker 2: don't really wantch you. And so what are the young
Speaker 2: people doing. They're not watching television period, They're not watching
Speaker 2: traditional broadcasting, they're not watching cable. They are on YouTube,
Speaker 2: they are on TikTok, and all of that content, as
Speaker 2: we know, is very cheap to make and has huge
Speaker 2: returns for the content creators, much more so than what
Speaker 2: we're even seeing in broadcasting. So yes, the young viewers
Speaker 2: who would tend to watch the snarky comedians make fun
Speaker 2: of the day's news and the politicians behind much of it.
Speaker 2: They're not watching television. Most of them don't even have TVs.
Speaker 2: So this is the problem, and how do you fix it?
Speaker 2: No one knows.
Speaker 1: They didn't figure out how to monetize what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Those clips were great. Kimmel used to go viral seemed
Speaker 1: like every week because he did some skit of some gag.
Speaker 1: So where the kids figure out, I don't have to
Speaker 1: stay up late and watch your whole show. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: see the clip in the morning, correct, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: watch it for a few seconds. I'm gonna laugh and
Speaker 1: move on about my day. You can't monetize that to
Speaker 1: the tune of a fifteen million dollar year salary just
Speaker 1: yet anyway. But they tried, and they've been trying and
Speaker 1: trying and trying. But the shows we talked about this
Speaker 1: the other day, we just ha was it might have
Speaker 1: been a promo I think for the CBS Morning Show.
Speaker 1: And this is not a criticism of them, but I
Speaker 1: look like, wow, that's the same glass table, the same
Speaker 1: round table, the same three people wearing the same outfits
Speaker 1: with the same color background. It's as if news and
Speaker 1: networks in particular have a difficult time change adapt evolving,
Speaker 1: and the late shows you watch tonight, it looks exactly
Speaker 1: the way it looked when Johnny Carson did the show,
Speaker 1: except for a few skits maybe, But it's the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so some of the older folks are sticking
Speaker 2: around because doesn't it feel good. It almost feels nostalgic,
Speaker 2: It feels safe. This is what you know, this is
Speaker 2: what you like, this is how you laugh. But for
Speaker 2: the folks who are younger, who they need, desperately need,
Speaker 2: they can't focus. We know we have children. They can't
Speaker 2: focus for more than thirty seconds on anything. So the
Speaker 2: clips were great, but it wasn't driving people back to
Speaker 2: watch the show. So, yes, they loved watching them, they
Speaker 2: appreciated the humor, and they're wildly popular, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: translate to folks tuning in at eleven thirty five to
Speaker 2: watch these late night shows.
Speaker 1: It's weird when you do think about it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: Meeting comes out, same suit, same tie, gives the monologue,
Speaker 1: goes over, sits behind a desk, gives a shout out
Speaker 1: to his band, brings out whatever celebrity to promote whatever movie,
Speaker 1: you do the same package, little stories and little laughs,
Speaker 1: and there is you're not expecting a moment anymore. Think
Speaker 1: it the greatest late night moments. You could probably think
Speaker 1: of what our Senil Hall I can remember one. I
Speaker 1: can remember Jay Lintle with Was it Hugh Grant that
Speaker 1: moment after he was arrested. Oh, there are moments that
Speaker 1: stand out. Those moments just don't seem.
Speaker 2: They were long, long, long ago it happened like that anymore.
Speaker 2: They really don't. And you know, you brought up the
Speaker 2: early show CBS and not to point, not to single
Speaker 2: them out, but all the morning shows, I would imagine,
Speaker 2: and us having worked in morning television for many decades,
Speaker 2: you have to think they're concerned because the same thing
Speaker 2: is happening on morning television with the morning network news shows.
Speaker 2: Their audience is dwindling each year. It's they're trying to
Speaker 2: stop the bleeding. But there aren't gains that anyone's talking about.
Speaker 2: These are all losses that.
Speaker 1: Stopped the bleeding. As always, that used to always be
Speaker 1: my complaint at a network, like all we're trying to
Speaker 1: do is hold on to the viewers we have instead
Speaker 1: of trying to try something and be a little risky
Speaker 1: to possibly go gain new viewers. It was never anywhere
Speaker 1: that seemed to take those types comfortable tap taking those
Speaker 1: types of risks.
Speaker 2: No, and talking about TikTok trends or you know, that
Speaker 2: doesn't make people who use TikTok tune into morning television.
Speaker 2: And so we've seen the desperate attempts. We've been a
Speaker 2: part of them. We have contributed to some of the
Speaker 2: stories that we were assigned to try and get younger
Speaker 2: folks to watch morning television and it simply does not work.
Speaker 1: How many reporters in the past ten years we're tasked
Speaker 1: with being the social media person and every morning what's trending.
Speaker 2: Yes, we had social Square and we're like touching things
Speaker 2: like it was an iPad on the wall because you know,
Speaker 2: we were hip and cool and young and we got
Speaker 2: you young folks. No, we didn't. We don't. We haven't
Speaker 2: figured it out. Television broadcasting has not figured it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like Knight has not figured it out. And
Speaker 1: you paratly saw the headline as well. I think it
Speaker 1: was a couple years ago in New York Times, is
Speaker 1: this Late Night's last gasp. They've been talking about this
Speaker 1: for years. This is going to happen? What the streamers
Speaker 1: trying to come up with? The A couple of folks
Speaker 1: doing late night on streaming. They're trying to see so
Speaker 1: it might late night, might continue. It just might be
Speaker 1: somewhere else.
Speaker 2: They might look a little in a smaller screen.
Speaker 1: And please let it look different.
Speaker 2: Please, Yeah, be innovative and that. But see the innovation,
Speaker 2: the creativity and the transparency, the authenticity. That is what TikTok,
Speaker 2: That is what YouTube gives viewers.
Speaker 1: Podcasting gives folks. We're just listening to folks differently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: same canned stuff.
Speaker 2: They want authenticity. They don't want scripts, they don't want that.
Speaker 2: They don't want planned and canned. They want real and new.
Speaker 1: And they're making that clear look of all the folks.
Speaker 1: So many folks upset about this and Jimmy Kimmel's competition,
Speaker 1: but he's not celebrating. These guys have collaborated on plenty
Speaker 1: of things over the years and certainly seemed to be
Speaker 1: say they are seemed to be robes, authentic friends. But
Speaker 1: he didn't hold his tongue and had an expletive laden response, Yes,
Speaker 1: what happens?
Speaker 2: Yeah, on a story I was on his Instagram story,
Speaker 2: Kim Will put out love you, Stephen, fuck you and
Speaker 2: all your Sheldon's CBS. That was very blunt and to
Speaker 2: the point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he can say that, I hope there's no
Speaker 1: backlash or anything. Network's not going to go after him
Speaker 1: for that necessarily. He can say what he wants and
Speaker 1: that's his opinion. But man, that stings if you're sitting
Speaker 1: in his chair, if you're sitting in Falon's chair, if
Speaker 1: you're looking to where even if you want to get
Speaker 1: rid of me, like I know, the show is going
Speaker 1: to go on, but now you have to think that, Wow,
Speaker 1: even the show.
Speaker 2: You're getting rid of Late Night is on the table. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's scared, you know. I'm actually it is going to
Speaker 2: be very interesting what these ratings are going to be
Speaker 2: like for the next ten months, because you're seeing obviously
Speaker 2: a groundswell of support for Stephen now from the actors
Speaker 2: and from the producers and the folks who come on
Speaker 2: his show who love his show. And we can tell
Speaker 2: you what some of these folks are saying, because it
Speaker 2: is interesting. But I was just thinking to myself, are
Speaker 2: so many more people now going to watch Colbert now
Speaker 2: that they've heard the headlines now that they know it's same,
Speaker 2: absolutely same.
Speaker 1: Haven't had a desire to watch a late night show
Speaker 1: no matter who the guest is, anything that I hear about, Yes,
Speaker 1: I want to watch him for the next tea. I
Speaker 1: do too, absolutely do.
Speaker 2: And I think that it might be like an incredible
Speaker 2: Swan song in a sense, because he might see the
Speaker 2: best ratings he's ever seen in his career.
Speaker 1: I think no doubt he will. But this reminds me
Speaker 1: it's similar to professional athletes who announced that something is
Speaker 1: going to be their last season. So now you get
Speaker 1: kind of a everywhere they would go for a game,
Speaker 1: the crowd gives them love, and that school gives them love.
Speaker 1: That he now every celebrity is going to every name
Speaker 1: is going to show up in that chair over the
Speaker 1: next ten months to be a part of a goodbye
Speaker 1: to him, And that's kind of cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Some of the folks, some of the folks who wrote
Speaker 2: in just to give you a sense, Judd Apatow, famous
Speaker 2: filmmaker and producer. He wrote, my admiration and appreciation for
Speaker 2: you is bottomless excited to see what other brilliance you
Speaker 2: put into the world. Snow White actress Rachel Zegler wrote,
Speaker 2: I am extremely sad. I adore you Stephen, but seven
Speaker 2: star Adam Scott. I loved what he put out there.
Speaker 2: He said, love you, Steven. This is absolute bullshit, And I,
Speaker 2: for one am looking forward to the next ten months
Speaker 2: of shows. And I really think that is going to
Speaker 2: be the sentiment from so many people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can understand financials, we can actually understand difficult
Speaker 1: decisions that have to be made, we can understand a
Speaker 1: changing media landscape. But this feels like bullshit exactly. It does,
Speaker 1: and we all do. Whether you watch the show or not.
Speaker 1: It's still right now. I mean people have that maybe
Speaker 1: some political issues with him, but the guy's a talented comedian.
Speaker 2: He was so funny.
Speaker 1: It was The Daily Show, and then he got the
Speaker 1: Cobert Report. Yeah, Colbert Report.
Speaker 2: Yes, he loved him on the Daily Show. It was
Speaker 2: amazing on the and that led him to the star
Speaker 2: that he is now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's been a good steward of that show,
Speaker 1: that legacy show, and it was in good hands and
Speaker 1: it just right now feels that way.
Speaker 2: You know. I was on I agree. I agree. I
Speaker 2: was on a plane with him on the way to
Speaker 2: cover the Emmys. The Oscars. I can't remember which a
Speaker 2: ward show it was, and he was so kind and
Speaker 2: so funny. I watched him interact with his wife, with
Speaker 2: the whole rest of the plane. There was some silly
Speaker 2: thing that happened with the flight attendant, and I just thought,
Speaker 2: what a good guy like I just I don't know
Speaker 2: him personally, but I just got to actually observe him.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's just, it's it's a it's a
Speaker 2: gut punch to anyone who's so good at their craft,
Speaker 2: who is now no longer allowed to do the job
Speaker 2: they're so amazing at. That is certainly said. But speaking
Speaker 2: to the politics, did you see what Senator Warren? Obviously
Speaker 2: she's politically motivated, but what she said, what she said
Speaker 2: is just what a lot of folks are an investigation
Speaker 2: she is so well, no, she already she already. So
Speaker 2: here's the deal. This is funny. Back in May, she
Speaker 2: opened an investigation into whether Paramount was engaging in bribery
Speaker 2: with Trump over this s guy dance merger. So he's
Speaker 2: already got an investigation underway about that whole situation. But
Speaker 2: she put this out on X She said, CBS canceled
Speaker 2: Colbert's show, just three days after Colbert called out CBS
Speaker 2: parent company Paramount for its sixteen million dollars settlement with Trump,
Speaker 2: a deal that looks like bribery, And then she said
Speaker 2: America deserves to know if his show was canceled for
Speaker 2: political reasons. Here's the deal. We're never gonna know that
Speaker 2: unless Trump announces it and says, yep, that's what happened.
Speaker 2: But short of that, are we ever going to actually
Speaker 2: know if that had a factor or if it was
Speaker 2: the factor for CBS canceling Colbert's show.
Speaker 1: The way they handle it, this one maybe is on them. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: I know the public can get going and social media
Speaker 1: can get going and say we're never gonna believe what
Speaker 1: we're hearing kind of a I don't think it's the
Speaker 1: public's fault. I mean, you gave us every reason to
Speaker 1: be suspicious. This was days ago, exactly. Got a call
Speaker 1: two days after that joke.
Speaker 2: Look if Jimmy Fallon's show, if the whole show is
Speaker 2: being canceled because of poor ratings, and NBC announced that
Speaker 2: no one would probably say a word, this is very different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they needed to give us more, maybe something. This
Speaker 1: could have been a set. Why would do you have
Speaker 1: to do it now. By the way, why couldn't we
Speaker 1: have waited till later in the year.
Speaker 2: Why we could have announced a final season in September
Speaker 2: something like that.
Speaker 1: Why now the timing's weird. If now, if we hear
Speaker 1: about this damn sale going through anywhere in the next
Speaker 1: two months, okay, people are going to lose it.
Speaker 2: They are, and honestly, rightfully so I get it, and
Speaker 2: I think a lot of folks listening get it. We
Speaker 2: understand sometimes that's not just CoInc sometimes it is. But
Speaker 2: a lot of times, what do they say, where there's smoke,
Speaker 2: there's fire.
Speaker 1: Well, Stephen Gobert, just we thank you and we love
Speaker 1: you for the years of entertainment, for being kind on
Speaker 1: a plane that robot was on, but we and look,
Speaker 1: if you need some help navigating when you have to
Speaker 1: leave a job and he didn't want to please, you
Speaker 1: know where to find us.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, everybody. Hope you have a great Friday.