Colbert's firing sent Late Show audience into nose-dive so bad it's crashing CBS: report
9 days ago by VetOfTheSeas to c/television
Have the day you fired someone for.
I mean, I doubt they care. The plan is just to monopolize them anyway and turn them all into rank propaganda factotries.
Good ol Ministry of Truth.
The classic playbook for authoritarian takeover is to first start with symbols, like Trump's name and face everywhere. Capture institutions by putting loyalists in high places and push out the critics. Get the judges in your pocket. Control the media.
The program is going hard.
The value of twitter was never twitter
Same for Reddit, which is why its gone to shit over the past year. Especially with tbe removal of /r/all.
Network TV has been losing money for years.
Skydance is fattening up CBS to sell it to comply with anti-trust laws.
It’s so crazy. CBS used to be my go to source for broadcast news and I used to associate it with high quality programming.
After this whole fiasco I wouldn’t touch anything associated with them with a 50 foot pole.
Killing any news source that values truth in any way is a goal. So, mission accomplished by the fascists.
Surprising nobody. I wonder if doing favors to corruptly ensure the Paramount merger went through will pay off for the mega-corp. Probably.
This is me pre-googling this, and I was born in the early 80s: who in the fuck is Byron Allen? Never heard of him.
Ok. Im gonna go plop a Goog on it and answer my own question.
Edit: post-google, who the fuck is Byron Allen?
Craig Kilborn, as in the host of the Daily Show?
never heard of him
If you say so... I've heard of a handful of shows/projects he's worked on, but it sounds to me that after decades of grind, THIS is his big break aaand most people aren't happy about it. Not his fault obviously, but definitely a bad career decision if you ask me.
Also, we meet again prole 🤣
but it sounds to me that after decades of grind, THIS is his big break aaand most people aren’t happy about it
I didn't know anything about Byron Allen other than it was a nebulous name I instantly recognized probably from comedy shows 30 years ago.
But googling says he's a god damn BILLIONAIRE.
Idk how old you are (I'm late 30's), but I'm a fan of comedy and have never heard of him. Maybe I don't remember his name because his style didn't interest me? I might know him if I saw him perform? He must not be that big of a name though, cause I don't like plenty of comedians, but I've still heard of them. But that's just personal anecdote, so I couldn't really say
The audience numbers crashing is just fine with Trump as well.
Right wing propaganda.
They also have been killing off a lot of shows, especially shows unpopular with loud extremists like Star Trek.
We're going to go full Idiocracy. Nothing but cut rate scripted drama.
TODAY ON SUVIVOR CVS
Talkshow host Jonny B is going up against Theresa O is a no holds barred contest of wits. The winner gets to continue on till next week while the loser's grandmother is swatted by ICE on live television.
Allen, 65, said from the outset he wasn't chasing Colbert's audience. "At the end of the day, I'm not trying to replace Colbert," he told NPR last month. "I am not trying to hold on to his audience because Comics Unleashed has been around 20 years and has its own audience."
Cool story bro.
Wait Byron Allen as in that shitty, boring ass talkshow host from like 20 years ago who was only there to awkwardly set up comics to say their pre agreed upon bits from their act? They're replacing Colbert with that wet sock?
Sucks to suck lol.
hmmm
In May 2026, Allen and his controlling company Allen Family Digital LLC announced an agreement to buy a controlling stake in BuzzFeed, Inc. for $120 million. BuzzFeed Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti will be succeeded by Byron Allen, who will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer upon closing.[27]
Who is surprised? Dumbasses/oligarchs?
This won't bring down CBS because its profitable for CBS. Colbert's time slot has essentially become an infomercial.
The show PAYS for that time, they are essentially renting it. They keep whatever ad revenue they can collect. Theoretically, the show collects more in advertising revenue that they pay CBS for the time, and they make a profit.
But that's the production company's problem. CBS makes money no matter what. The show may lose money, but CBS still gets their rent money. The fact that the show is down almost 90% viewership is embarrassing for CBS, but it isn't costing them anything.
So truthfully that is actually a plus. In some cases you don't want a short severe fluctuation to have a large affect in the immediate aftermath.
If anyone one show is cancelled or not renewed, or a high profile celebrity or business person leave the company, the company should be able to continue forward.
It will absolutely have long term consequences. Lead out or lead in programming. The long term value of the ad slots. The tentpole show or spokesperson that brings in other new viewers.
CBS is saying they're making 15 million on the deal they've negotiated right now on this special time slot. Maybe next year they only make 10 million. Maybe affiliates lose several million more.
But, to be honest, maybe they make up for it all in streaming or other Internet ventures. Maybe the cost is already built in to the merger calculation.
Time will tell.
Or maybe they don't care about the profits, as long as they get to spew Fox News level propaganda into every home on America. The Ellisons are wealthy enough to take a loss on CBS, knowing that Trump will feed them plenty of much larger opportunities in the future. CBS is just a loss leader.
And it's not just about their control of the news. Their propaganda is insidious, and is already oozing into their programming. I watch that bad FBI show because I'm too lazy to change the channel, and in one recent episode, the guys were from some terrorist group that arise out of the Portland Occupy protests of 2012, and they had done bombings, arsons, corporate kidnappings, etc. Except none of that ever happened. I know they were supposed to be fictitious, but they could have created some fake militia group to blame it on, or even some dumb fictitious liberal group, or some foreign terrorist org, etc., but they chose to make it a group that would reinforce MAGA propaganda.
Another episode had the bad guys being a family of Iranian spies, embedded in America for years, and were now causing trouble. We've never had a case of an embedded Iranian spy family in America, but we have had numerous embedded RUSSIAN spy families that we have discovered. Again, reinforcement of MAGA lies.
Portland, Iran, favorite MAGA targets. Not a coincidence.
And that's an old show that was already in production. We can expect that any new shows that go into production, will be heavily MAGA-coded, and I won't be bothering to watch any CBS programming. There's already more than I can possibly watch, so CBS is doing me a favor by taking themselves out of my queue.
I think they lose a lot in cultural relevance. But that isn't the concern. They are just mad about all the uncomfortable things 60 minutes used to say so destroying the brand is why it was bought. If it tanks who cares. Just gonna write it off and cash in the insurance checks.
The writing has been on the wall for broadcast television anyway as no one under 35 has ever seen an entire episode of 60 minutes anyway
The fact that the show is down almost 90% viewership is embarrassing for CBS, but it isn’t costing them anything.
The purpose of CBS is to operate as a propaganda outlet for the Ellison family. The Colbert Late Show was running counter to that role. Why would the Ellisons want people watching counter-programming to their propaganda mill? Better to just axe the show entirely and bait a trap full of reactionary media content to catch a younger audience of naive viewers.
Such a deep take.
You don't understand how lead ins work (article mentions both news and morning show working under traditional models) AND you're trusting the numbers of CBS, a known corrupt, non-credible entity in the process dismantling it's long meaningful reputation.
These things aren't calculated 1:1, that's a child's POV.
Who could've possibly predicted this?
Don't say the name of the new show, and boycott any comedians who appear on it. Make it poisonous.
I've glanced at a few episodes, and I haven't recognized a single comedian. He's not getting the best.
No, it's the new programming replacing colbert that has collapsing ratings.
Yeah, I did a short dive into his whole deal even before this whole situation. I think he's probably just around $1B, because he went from comedian and writer to investor. I mean, he owns part of BuzzFeed, even.
And yeah. It is weird that he's done a fair amount for black causes, but somehow he's willing to put up with CBS? There's always a contradiction when you have money but do things for community. Though I personally just always felt the was off, the same way I felt about Jay Leno.
I only ever saw him on Comics Unleashed if I was up late and unable to sleep, and... It was never great lol.
After learning that he financed all that shit, I realized that the guy seemed like he was doing that show for the love of the game which I can respect.
...buzzfeeds still around?
Wait..no name who made at least a billion decided not to take the slot that anyone could have guessed would not be watched in boycott, but instead he bought it? Dang. Maybe that 5D chess he's playing.
Ya I stopped watching after they took him off lol
I have been catching up on his stuff on youtube. would be funny if more streams of his stuff was being done on youtube than what is broadcast.
I guess if someone keeps paying for the spot they won’t care, because it will still be profit for them in their eyes.
It's not profit, though.
It was what's called a "loss leader". You lose money on one product so you get back more on another product.
The other word for "loss leader" is "investment". You spend money in one place so you get back more elsewhere.
What CBS did is basically like a grocery store having a cheap and delicious food by the entryway to attract customers and then deciding that they were losing money on it, removing it, and then going "Oh, shit, we don't have any customers anymore! We're not making any money at all."
Good luck with that godawful Comics Unleashed show.
Except everything is losing money on CBS.
They don’t care it’s just pro fascist, pro billionaire, pro Israel propaganda now
Wouldn’t a better comparison be that they stopped selling the delicious food and are now renting out the empty space to someone else? I don’t think they are footing the bill for the new show unless I missed that part?
No-risk profit to be exact.
Haven't watched TV much at all since 9/11. I got sick of watching planes crash into buildings, and afterward it didn't take long for me to get absolutely sick of commercials.
_fffffffffttttttttppth! How m I gonna piss if not IH nIdaho
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Welcome to Television
This community is for discussion of anything related to television or streaming.
Other Communities
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- !movies@piefed.social
- !animation@piefed.social
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A community for discussion of anything related to Television via broadcast or streaming.
Rules:
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They did it to themselves.
save