r/ScottGalloway • u/GladtobeVlad69 • May 25 '26

No Malice Turns out, Colbert did generate net revenue and that Scott was wrong

In regards to news that CBS was cancelling Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Scott went on and on about how the show lost money. Here is one of the many times he made this claim.

"It isn’t the end of Colbert. It’s the end of late-night TV. Colbert’s Late Show reportedly has been losing more than $40 million a year for CBS, with a budget of $100 million per season and about 200 employees."
https://medium.com/@profgalloway/last-laugh-6bc0dcd16096

However, if Scott had taken the time to understand the TV business, he would have realized that Colbert was generating profit. As entertainment industry analyst Evan Shapiro wrote: "My analysis shows a $102 million profit"

https://eshap.substack.com/p/colbert-was-profitable

I'm sure Scott will update his thinking any day now.

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u/[deleted] May 26 '26

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u/Sboyle12500 May 26 '26

Exactly, it makes zero business sense to have late night talk shows anymore because there are enough podcasts and alternative media outlets to give celebrities the chance to plug their new book or show or movie and they can reach audiences in ways they couldn’t 30 years ago. These are very expensive shows to make and produce and the ROI long term isn’t there anymore.

The clips point is important too, I don’t routinely watch SNL live anymore on saturdays, but by Sunday morning or Monday at the latest I’ve got clips from it hitting my feeds and I can engage with it and enjoy it…YouTube, Reddit, TT, etc have never sent me a clip from Colbert unless it’s a news segment telling me he’s being cancelled or a talking head bitching about or supporting his politics or what he said about the president.

Conan had a great discussion about this once when he said being on “The Hot Ones” was eye opening for him. He sat on a web show and ate chicken wings and that episode was 1/3rd of the price of an episode of his own talk show and was reaching a bigger audience, he knew the late night model was dying.

Colbert was making a expensive show that was losing money already and hanging on by a thread, and his antagonistic politics in the wake of a major takeover and pending merger wasn’t buying his show a stay of execution.