It is even less sustainable when you factor in the political leanings meaning he was missing out with the overwhelming majority of right wing boomers.
I think that the show was made that way by design by the network because they believed that it would lock in a demographic of viewers - and it largely did that. It would certainly be a recipe for disaster in the old model, where you needed larger viewership. With everything so fragmented now, you don't need that level of bi-partisanship. We can see if with news sources as well, Fox and CNN are fairly successful catering to one political bend. I personally don't like how political everything has become, and believe that it was a mistake. I watched Carson and Leno and did not know their politics because they were fair. Letterman, it was clear, was a Democrat but he had run ins with very liberal people on the show like Madonna and others and he seemed to float towards the middle-left. I would point out though that Letterman never had the market share that Leno had either, and that was likely part of it.
I meant mean-spirited in terms of the broadcast--Carson may have been a complete ******* off the air, but on the air he was 'reasonable' as you say. Someone else used the term "partisan," that might have been a better choice than "mean-spirited," but I do believe that some of Colbert's actual on-air broadcasts as regards Trump were mean-spirited. Fallon manages to criticize/needle/mock Trump through generally friendly satire and comedy. Colbert has gone off the rails numerous times and as a result I think he's lost much of his audience coming from the other side of aisle. All the late-night shows are partisan now, it's a big reason they've lost influence, audience share, and money.
I agree overall but Colbert's popularity started with mocking conservatives. His bosses already knew his DNA. Regardless a lot of the "mean-spirited" Trump comedy was personality based like left leaning posters here constantly using the "word" bigly. A comedian can't help it. Too easy Edit: nobody makes fun of his politics as much as personality. Trump's arrogance alongside with his rambling like the In Living Color skit, the black Muslim inmate using the big words incorrectly is comedic gold All president impersonations are about personality mostly
It has to be.talen into account that he was number one among late night broadcast talk shows but I totally understand you saying he was too white I wouldn't put it that way but I would say he was high brow for a talk show host
You know the median age of his show was 68 @Salvy @Os Trigonum so you got some peeps here who watch him Lots of legacy media is being flushed Like I told everyone awhile ago people watch new media like YouTube Or TikTok
Colbert has become the exact kind of smug news anchor he used to parody, bombastic, self-aggrandizing, and ridiculously self-important, an absolutely pathetic slide into shallow self-parody, without even the self-awareness to notice.
Maybe it was worth $40-50 million to put out one sided political content for them, at first I thought CBS doesn't like throwing money in the garbage but maybe they thought it was worth it if they could help solidify the political views and agenda that CBS favors ... I think the problem became that they were not moving the needle with young viewers and they were just talking to themselves redundantly and then realized O yea this losing money is 100 percent not doing a dam thing. Lol
Just another day in the life of Trump. Now he's claiming he gets 20 million in free advertising on top of it. He's probably planning his weekly Fascist Fireside Chats to Americans as we speak. Heil Trump!
@Space Ghost @Salvy @Os Trigonum @pgabriel @basso @RB713 sorry wokes , paramount canned Cobert and gave a billion dollars to South Park! Hahahahahahahaha
The MAIN issue is Trump injecting himself into who gets to have a show on TV. The main issue is NOT -if you think Colbert is funny (or not) -if the show was profitable -about network TV vs. streaming -about demographics of viewership This is about the 1st Amendment. The president of the United States injecting themselves into who gets on TV is exactly the type of stuff that Putin does and other dictators. Regardless of your political leanings, this is a slippery slope the devolves into a place that is un-American. Period. For a republican party that has stood on a platform of "small government" that should stay out of the way, this is exactly opposite of that. Republicans should be outraged.
I don't think you're ever going to be able to draw a definitive line from Trump to Colbert's firing. I'd like to see some attempts, though. I guess the theory is that Trump told his FCC to not approve the SD/Paramount merger unless Colbert was sent packing? If that actually happened, I wonder how illegal that is, and if it was would anyone bother to hold him to account (of course not lol). Also it's not like Colbert was the only Trump critical property in the Paramount catalog. But after what happened at 60 Minutes, etc, it's really starting to seem like Paramount has basically bent the knee in some really egregious way.
