Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ was reportedly losing CBS $40M a year as critics speculate politics drove cancellation

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show is getting cancelled, and his competitors aren’t doing much better.  Broadcast networks may as well go back to a test pattern at midnight, and just sign off until morning.

Colbert’s show costs a $100 million per season, but only pulls in $60 million in revenue. Why would a network keep a show on the air that loses money?

For late night talk shows, Colbert’s show is doing well with an average of 2.4 million viewers, and 219,000 viewers in the target age range.  There are thousands of Youtube channels  pulling more viewers.  That’s the problem.

Anybody killing time before bed can always find something more interesting on Youtube.