The Colbert ‘Conspiracy’

When the eponymous host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert announced last week that CBS intends to cancel the program at the end of the current season, it seemed like a logical coda for a property that had long been in decline.

As Jim Geraghty detailed, the show hemorrhaged money for Colbert’s employer. The host himself commands an annual eight-figure salary, and sources close to the program claim that cost contributed to the program’s $40 million per year operating deficit. The advertising revenue the Late Show took in didn’t cover its $100 million production budget, including the salaries of the 200 or so employees who worked on it and the overhead associated with the show’s dedicated theater on the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway. The average Late Show viewer was 60 years old when Colbert took over — a trend the hip young Comedy Central phenom was supposed to reverse. Today, the average viewer is 68. The network didn’t even think the show was worth salvaging with another host. Instead, it cut bait entirely, consigning the legacy brand David Letterman began building back in 1993 to the annals of television history.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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When the eponymous host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert announced last week that CBS intends to cancel the program at the end of the current season, it seemed like a logical coda for a property that had long been in decline.

As Jim Geraghty detailed, the show hemorrhaged money for Colbert’s employer. The host himself commands an annual eight-figure salary, and sources close to the program claim that cost contributed to the program’s $40 million per year operating deficit. The advertising revenue the Late Show took in didn’t cover its $100 million production budget, including the salaries of the 200 or so employees who worked on it and the overhead associated with the show’s dedicated theater on the corner of 53rd Street and Broadway. The average Late Show viewer was 60 years old when Colbert took over — a trend the hip young Comedy Central phenom was supposed to reverse. Today, the average viewer is 68. The network didn’t even think the show was worth salvaging with another host. Instead, it cut bait entirely, consigning the legacy brand David Letterman began building back in 1993 to the annals of television history.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.