Paramount and Skydance’s merger has been a headline-maker the place all issues TV information are involved, and the ramifications of these adjustments will proceed to be felt nicely past the remainder of the 2025 TV schedule. Seemingly most affected, a minimum of for the time being, are CBS’ late night time slots, with The Late Present with Stephen Colbert getting canceled months after After Midnight‘s destiny was sealed. Relating to pointing fingers of blame, Paramount and CBS’ new boss has a #1 suspect in thoughts.
Jeff Shell, the multimedia exec who was beforehand in cost as NBCUniversal’s CEO from 2019 to 2023, was introduced in to take over as President of Paramount for David Ellison’s post-merger reign as CEO. Although he wasn’t chargeable for the choice to offer the axe to The Late Present following its eleventh season, he didn’t precisely argue to maintain the speak present round as soon as he did take over.
Talking with Deadline, Shell appeared to color a maudlin image when addressing the way forward for each late night time and primetime, as he’s lengthy been a proponent of shifting the ten:00 p.m. ET hour of primetime away from scripted choices. Particularly relating to pre-sleep speak reveals, the Paramount President mentioned he agreed with the choice to chop Stephen Colbert’s present, and claimed the Web’s greatest media large was the basis trigger. In his phrases:
Late-night has an enormous drawback proper now. . . . The issue is that 80% of the viewership and rising is on YouTube. [YouTube pays] 45 cents on the greenback [so] you’ll be able to’t make it work economically anymore.
Jeff Shell technically is not making any brand-new observations right here, since a part of the monetary argument for The Late Present‘s cancellation stemmed from Colbert’s extremely politicized monologues, segments and visitor spots not being as universally common as stress-free clips of Jimmy Fallon enjoying goofy video games with A-list celebrities.
Certainly, even if The Late Present usually beats out The Tonight Present and Jimmy Kimmel Dwell! in each complete viewership and demo scores, Colbert’s present has by no means been a stronger performer relating to buzzy clips and viral vids. As such, each of his rivals have been in a position to reap the monetized rewards of being extra common with audiences who’re not geared for conventional late-night viewing.
It is solely attainable that for his subsequent non-acting gig after The Late Present, Colbert might launch a YouTube-exclusive collection that turns him into the largest digital movie star on the planet. I imply, that is not going in any respect, but when there’s anybody who might most likely discover a approach to rub success within the face of former employers, it is a former Day by day Present correspondent.
Will CBS Lose Its 10:00 P.M. ET Time Slot?
When he was nonetheless operating issues at NBC, Shell was pushing for the community to modify ways and pull scripted programming from primetime’s third hour, which has more and more turn out to be probably the most viewer-effected hour, with increasingly more viewers making the bounce to streaming choices throughout that point.
Contemplating CBS stays the community with the largest drama audiences general, even on Friday nights which are typically a graveyard for primetime choices, it is no shock that Shell will not be making any dramatic adjustments at his latest gig. Nonetheless, he is nonetheless completely open to these eventual alterations. When requested if it was nonetheless a future risk, Shell mentioned:
Ultimately, that might occur, for positive.
Fortunately, although, he confirmed that CBS’ present lineup continues to be locked in place, and that audiences can nonetheless look ahead to reveals like Watson, NCIS: Sydney, The Superb Race, Elsbeth and the brand new present Boston Blue will all nonetheless be round for the upcoming Fall TV season (and also will be accessible to stream with a Paramount+ subscription).