Words of Wisdom from the Babylon Bee – The departure of Stephen Colbert had little to do with his on-air attack of CBS’s parent company Paramount. Johnny Carson was highly critical of NBC, but the executives in that case laughed all the way to the bank.

Colbert’s demise, and the termination of the show itself, was very likely the result of shareholder pressure on profitability. The “Late Show” began in 1993, with then-host David Letterman, making huge profits for the media giant. Quoting from a recent article in Forbes, Colbert, for many years, continued that trend (though hampered by social media competition) …

“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, one of the most-watched programs in late-night television.”

More recently, Colbert’s consistent choice of humor and his progressive guests lost viewership to more conservative programing such as Gutfeld! on Fox News.

The reasons for what would seem to be a cultural reset can be rationalized by the progressives and applauded by conservatives. However, the bottom line is that The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert was failing in viewership and resulting advertising revenue. According to LateNighter stats …

• Of the 41 first-run episodes in 2025, average viewership was 2.4 million.
• The key demographic of 18-47 year olds drew only 219k viewers in Q2.
• Gutfeld!, by contrast averaged 3.29 million viewers in 2025 and 238k in the 18-47 demo in Q2.
• The other progressive late-night shows (Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) fell farther below in viewership.
• The annualized shortfall of Late Night is currently estimated to be $40 million. The show is estimated to cost $100 million to produce.

Conclusion

Perhaps as a nation we have finally become tired of the Trump-bashing (I am NOT a Trump fan) and the rotation of liberal political pundits and biased celebrities on late night television. It may be that Gutfeld! has taken over, not so much because of its conservative bias, but because he is offering what late night used to be .. a time to relax from the day’s conflicts and smile a bit.

Then again … perhaps the pendulum of this country is settling back toward a more Biblical Christian worldview.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words

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