CBS claims it is now in profit after cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? Truth? Or are they "lying weasels"?
One of my favourite forms of entertainment this past week has been culture writers sh**ting on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen. Welcome to prime time (adjacent), Byron.
Here’s Andrew Lawrence at The Guardian with this brutal, because it’s true, line about the show:
Allen inherited the slot with Comics Unleashed, which feels less like a late-night show than an infomercial for one.
Later in the same, lengthy, paragraph:
It exists one evolutionary rung above a looped fireplace video, the sort of thing Walmart might run silently on a showroom TV wall.
But there is no more brutal a takedown of Comics Unleashed than seeing the actual show itself. Here’s a (now somewhat dated) preview for the show:
Meanwhile, today we have CBS on the offensive, supporting its offensive decision to can The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in favour of renting out the time-slot to Byron Allen.
In a statement issued to US trade press, CBS says that it is now making money in the timeslot:
“We’re proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue,” CBS said in its statement. “With this ‘time buy’ model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing.”
What should one make of this claim?
In one heavily populated camp, you have the sentiment of Dave Letterman, quoted a month or so ago:
“Let me just add one other thing. They’re lying weasels.”
Last week Evan Shapiro , the media exec turned analyst/pundit (or as he terms himself: Media’s Official Unofficial Cartographer), went through the numbers and came to the conclusion that Paramount are lying weasels.
You can read his full article here:
In it he published this mock P&L document, showing his math on the cancellation:
The contention made by Shapiro is basically that CBS’ numbers to justify the cancellation based purely on ad revenue are correct, but that those numbers don’t tell the entire story as there was additional revenue being made through fees being charged to cable and broadcast companies across the US.
It isn’t as though Shapiro is an evengalist for the late night shows. Even he is saying that they are on a downhill climb:
I will be the first to admit that late night talk shows, as they currently exist, are not long for this world. Neither the viewership nor the costs are keeping pace with current consumption trends. More people see the clips on social media than watch the shows themselves. The median age of the TV audience is (approximately) 112.
But, for the moment, he says that The Late Show was cancelled while still in profit. Something to think about should you ever have the misfortune of waking up your couch and seeing Comics Unleashed on your screen.
Kinda related…
Internal license fees are part of the tax-minimising revenue mix
In an article for the Australian Financial Review, reporter Sam Buckingham-Jones reports that in 2025, Netflix generated $1.47 billion in revenue with, $1.35 billion sent overseas as “distribution fees” to its parent entities. With a local revenue of just $119 million for the year, that leaves Netflix paying just $16m in income tax.
Two thoughts come to mind reading this:
My contention has long been that forcing content quotas on international streaming services doesn’t yield the results we want. Maybe if we taxed these larger international companies appropriately (and I’m not just talking streamers – I’m also thinking of other big, notable tech companies), that income tax could be applied to better supporting local media companies in producing more relevant content for local audiences.
Getting back to the The Late Show cancellation, it gets me wondering how much Paramount might also have been making from self-paying the parent company and avoiding state taxes among other concerns.
News Desk
Sarah Snook will star in a TV series adaptation of The Birds. The production is clear to point out that the show is adapting the book and not remaking the Hitchcock movie. Read: Deadline
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds will star in a new Disney+ docuseries about their co-ownership of the SailGP’s BONDS Flying Roos Australian Team. Reynold’s Welcome To Wrexham co-star Rob Mac will sit in the cuck chair on this show as Executive Producer. Read: thefutoncritic
New Brooke Shields drama You’re Killing Me has been renewed for a second season at Acorn TV. Read: Deadline
TV producer Jay Daniel has died at the age of 82. He was known for having a deft touch on shows with difficult stars, moving on from Moonlighting to Roseanne, and back to Cybil Shepherd for Cybil. Read: Deadline
Matt Brown, the star of Discovery reality show Alaskan Bush People has been found dead at age 43. Read: Variety
Jeff Hiller won an Emmy in a breakthrough moment, but the offer of a TV show never came. Read: THR
Following backlash, Jorge Gutierrez has announced he’s dropping out of making new series Punky Duck under Amazon’s AI program. Read: THR
The original screenplay that Amores Perros was based on is being turned into a TV series. Read: Deadline
There’s nothing in this interview with new US 60 Minutes EP Nick Bilton that he shouldn’t be saying. As the new EP, he is trying to evolve the show to be more multiplatform in its approach and to extend the show beyond a once-a-week presentation. What he will ultimately be judged on is the way he will handle the politics of the moment, which to date have been handled poorly by his new bosses. Read: Variety
Trailer Park
A Different World debuts on Netflix on September 24.
A Different World returns to Hillman College with a new class stepping onto campus - and beloved faces coming home. At the center is Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), Whitley and Dwayne’s lovingly sheltered youngest daughter, a free spirit with a flair for the spotlight and a big heart who’s still figuring out her own path at Hillman.
House of The Dragon returns for season 3 on HBO Max June 21.
Peacock’s Days of Our Lives “summer sizzle” trailer.
The Pyramid Scheme debuts on Prime Video June 5.
The series follows the story of Goldy, an ambitious but impatient young man, whose quest to get rich through a pyramid marketing business spirals into a rollercoaster of chaos - risking not just his future, but also the love and trust of his close-knit joint family.
Physical 100: Italy debuts on Sept 11 on Netflix, with new episodes out every Friday. Sister series Physical: Asia, Physical 100: Mexico, Physical 100: Sweden, and Physical: 100 USA have also been announced.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
Consider becoming a paid supporter of Always Be Watching.
Connect with Dan on Bluesky. Connect with Dan on Letterboxd. Connect with Dan on Linkedin. Challenge him on the NYT word game Crossplay. Email Dan @ alwaysbewatching.com or just reply to this email.
