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Why ending 'The Late Show' is a Paramount error

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. Last week, CBS canceled "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," although it will remain on the air until next May. Our TV critic David Bianculli says that even in an era when broadcast late-night talk shows are viewed less than ever before, this amounts to a significant moment in television history.

DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: Most of the time, the landscape of late-night TV seems almost exactly like that - a landscape, ever familiar, never changing. But once in a great while, the tectonic plate shifts suddenly and what we see becomes notably different.

Johnny Carson ruled late night on NBC for an amazing 30 years, and when he stepped down, the network should've given "The Tonight Show" to David Letterman. Instead, Letterman defected to CBS and launched that network's talk show franchise, "The Late Show," which Stephen Colbert eventually inherited. Conan O'Brien had "The Tonight Show" briefly but walked away to protest NBC's plan to present "The Tonight Show" in a later time slot so that a show by Jay Leno could air first. Jay Leno ended up with "The Tonight Show" and the time slot, then turned it over to Jimmy Fallon while another Jimmy - Jimmy Kimmel - established his own mini empire at ABC. And for a long time now, that's been it - Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel in late night, with Seth Meyers checking in on NBC even later. But a late-night TV earthquake, the first big one since the 1990s, set off tremors last week that are bound to have repercussions for years. Returning from a two-week vacation, Colbert opened his "Late Show" on Monday, July 14, by noting what Paramount, the parent company of CBS, had been up to.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")

STEPHEN COLBERT: While I was on vacation, my parent corporation, Paramount, paid Donald Trump a $16 million settlement...

UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Boo.

COLBERT: ...Over his "60 Minutes" lawsuit. As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I'm offended, and I don't know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help.

BIANCULLI: That was a soft enough jab, kind of like when Letterman would poke fun at his corporate bosses at General Electric once that company acquired NBC. But then, getting deeper into the weeds and the controversy, Colbert said this.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")

COLBERT: Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It's big fat bribe...

(LAUGHTER)

COLBERT: ...Because this all comes as Paramount's owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.

(SOUNDBITE OF FANFARE)

BIANCULLI: Three days later, Colbert opened his program seated at his desk, informing his studio audience and the viewers at home of a stunning piece of news.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")

COLBERT: Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending "The Late Show" in May.

UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE MEMBERS: No. Boo.

COLBERT: Yeah. I share your feelings. It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of "The Late Show" on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.

BIANCULLI: There are several issues here, and some are less clear-cut than others. Whether the decision to drop Colbert and his program indeed was a direct reaction to Colbert's jokes and observations about his bosses and Donald Trump is debatable. CBS said the cancellation was a purely financial decision, and the show's annual losses have been reported as an estimated $40 million. By comparison, back in the glory days of "The Tonight Show," Johnny Carson's late-night show was responsible for almost a quarter of NBC's profits.

It also is arguable whether the timing, with Paramount needing federal approval for that proposed merger, is a major factor. When you consider the recent cases of network news organizations bowing to lawsuits and other pressures at both ABC and CBS, it's not an unreasonable conjecture. And in terms of presidential administrations putting pressure on comedians critical of their policies, there's plenty of precedent, most famously with CBS back in the 1960s with the firing of the Smothers Brothers.

Stephen Colbert isn't being fired, of course. And like David Letterman and Conan O'Brien before him, Colbert is likely to be embraced and rewarded for whatever he does next. But the big loss here, from my view as a TV historian, is that CBS also is throwing out the "Late Show" franchise, which Letterman built from scratch and which, under Colbert's auspices for the next 10 months, will continue to emanate proudly from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway. I'm certain Colbert's final months on CBS, especially his last week, will be very vibrant and quote-worthy.

Almost no one I know still watches a late-night show on broadcast TV from start to finish. Instead, we all wait for the highlights to start circulating on the internet or the morning shows the next day. But the secondary reach of those monologues and other clips is significant. They pull many more millions of viewers on average than the late-night shows themselves. And CBS and Paramount, by planning to take "The Late Show" out of circulation, is silencing one of its few meaningful remaining CBS broadcast platforms. By not appreciating, defending and nurturing "The Late Show" - or "60 Minutes," for that matter - the parent company is making a paramount error. It's muzzling its best voices and diluting its own future.

GROSS: David Bianculli is a professor of television studies at Rowan University and the author of "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, the Trump administration has been pressuring elite universities like Harvard and Columbia with widespread demands and threats of federal funding cuts. So why are they now investigating George Mason University? Education reporter Katherine Mangan tells us about her investigation and why GMU's president thinks it's driven by a backlash to DEI efforts. I hope you'll join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOM SCOTT'S "SACK O' WOE (FEAT. TERENCE BLANCHARD ET AL.")

GROSS: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and John Sheehan. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOM SCOTT'S "SACK O' WOE (FEAT. TERENCE BLANCHARD ET AL.") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

David Bianculli
David Bianculli is a guest host and TV critic on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A contributor to the show since its inception, he has been a TV critic since 1975.
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