The outcry over the cancellation of “The Late Show with
Stephen Colbert” has led to one of the older forms of protests -- and possible revival: A TV viewer petition campaign.
Over 40,000 people have now signed on to petition to encourage CBS to keep the show around.
Unlike other
efforts in the past years to save a TV show, “The Late Show” was not one that suffered in viewership among its other competitors.
Among broadcast television’s 11:35 p.m.
late-night talk shows, it was the top earner, with a recent Nielsen-measured 2.4 million viewers, for live airing plus seven days of time-shifted viewing.
There was another issue -- a
financial one, at least according to company executives -- that apparently it has been losing money for some time. Reports suggest the show costs $100 million a year to produce. As part of those
expenses, Colbert's salary was reported to be around $15 million a year.
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The trouble is, advertising only brought in around $50 million to $60 million a year for the show.
But of
course, we need to factor in the timing for the move -- and Paramount Global's business overhang. Just three days after Colbert criticized a $16 million payment to the Trump Administration to settle a
President-directed lawsuit, CBS said it was ending the show.
Why now -- in mid-July? If the show was losing money for a long time, why not get rid of it two, three, or four years ago?
Sometimes TV networks keep shows, sports and other content around as "loss leaders" of sorts because it helps their overall business grow.
For example, the high-priced NFL -- in terms of
rights fees TV networks pay to the league -- doesn’t always put a network into a profitable situation from just advertising and distribution revenue. There can be over-reaching benefits from
using the league to promote non-sports prime-time and other daypart shows.
Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” -- which aired from 2018 to 2022 -- was a possible example.
According to reports, profitability was probably lower than expected for that NFL franchise. That said, both NBC and CBS, which previously shared the Thursday night package, reportedly lost money on
the deal.
Good news for those behind the petition. In recent years, big consumer campaigns can help keep shows around after their initial TV network launches and cancellations.
NBC’s “Manifest” (2018) aired three seasons, and then was picked up by Netflix in 2022 for two more seasons totaling 10 episodes each.
Fox’s “Brooklyn
Nine-Nine” (2013) ran for five seasons, and was then picked by NBC in 2019 for three more seasons.
Still, one needs to factor in the current marketplace considerations -- that is,
non-stop cord-cutting by legacy pay TV subscribers, with the growth of streaming.
Is “The Late Show” late to this kind of save-the-show party?