• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 7 hours ago

Now with “Colbert” gone, what is left for late-night television -- from an advertising perspective? Possibly a bit more.

Mark Marshall, chairman of advertising partnerships at NBCUniversal, says there is still strong demand from advertisers for late-night talk content.

All the attention and controversy may play a role in this. Recent estimates show that for the June 2025-June 2026 period,the three big broadcast late-night shows were up70% in total national TV advertising revenue to $311.6 million -- compared to $184.5 million for the previous 12-month period of June 2024-June 2025. This includes all airings and repeats on other platforms.

All this came before the recent major focus, attention, and controversy (and one major cancellation) on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Publicly, Paramount Skydance dropped “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” because it was losing money -- amid controversy, new ownership and the perspective of President Trump, who has not had good things to say about this late-night content -- generally.

So how can NBCU’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and Disney-ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” survive -- when “Colbert” could not?

On the surface, one less competitor in the market could change the math somewhat.

And there is other good news from YouTube, where hosts' monologues, celebrity interviews and musical content appears.

YouTube “views” over the last 12 months have climbed substantially.

Still, from a traditional Nielsen-measured viewership point of view, “Colbert” was the leader with 2.7 million in the first quarter of 2026, followed by Kimmel at 2.5 million and Fallon at 1.3 million.

Can they fill the gap -- and more importantly, will late-night focused advertisers move more money into those shows, and perhaps into Fox News Channel's "Gutfeld!" or Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”?

There are many digital, streaming and other alternatives for those advertisers to consider.

Broadcast still has the reach factor -- and growing hype from YouTube. Is that enough?

And perhaps the Trump Administration can continue to be a good TV marketing tool (winking emoji here).