David Letterman, who hosted “The Late Show” for decades before Stephen Colbert’s current iteration, spoke out in a new interview on CBS’ decision to replace it, saying the network doesn’t want to “spend any money.”
CBS announced in July that it had canceled Colbert’s program and that it would officially go off the air next month. Liberal critics have accused CBS and Paramount of ending the show to appease President Donald Trump and receive approval for a long-planned merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.
The network will lease Colbert’s old time slot to Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed,” a comedy talk show.
“They don’t want to spend any money, so they’re going to make money,” Letterman told Barbara Gaines, a former producer on his program. “They charge Byron Allen some reasonable price. He sells all the advertising for his ‘Comics Unleashed,’ and it’ll be, I think, 90 minutes or two hours of comics talking about funny stuff.”
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“The show is a pretty good idea. It’s all panel. Nobody’s doing any stand-up, except they’re seated doing stand-up,” he said.
The programming move by CBS is a unique one — and perhaps lucrative — since Allen Media Group is the one footing the bill for airtime, not CBS.
“This is them essentially renting the time slot to these two shows,” veteran entertainment industry journalist Matt Belloni said on “The Town” podcast earlier in April.
Belloni, who previously reported “The Late Show” was losing CBS $40 million a year and had been running on a whopping $100 million budget per season, called Monday’s announcement a “pretty sad moment for late night.”
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Beyond mere costs or allegedly appeasing Trump, the replacement of Colbert’s iteration of “The Late Show” appears to be a sign of the times. The sheer volume of podcasts and other alternatives to the late-night format has weakened their ratings, although the late-night stars all have large online presences.
The final season of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was recently ripped by Variety as “not very good TV” and out of touch with everyday Americans as the host has been flattered by a parade of liberal celebrities.
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS and did not receive an immediate reply.
