The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - CBS Cancels The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert, Why Late Night Is DYING

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

Colin gives his reaction to the announcement that CBS will be ending The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He looks back at the history of the show, and why the defining moment of Colbert’s time with the show was when he “stepped on the bit” with his political opinion during a segment with Jon Stewart over Covid. He points to viewers' changing habits and the injection of partisan politics into late night as the two reasons that late night shows are a dying breed. Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

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Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no-nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She can win.

She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, it's a Saturday. I've been doing errands watching Rory McElroy at the British Open, make a run.

I wanted to talk at length. And I do this from time to time at the volume on my pod. about the Stephen Colbert situation. And the reason I want to talk about it is because it's being positioned differently depending on people's politics. So I grew up a Johnny Carson fan. My mom got me a gift of the Carson tapes after he retired. I've watched, I wanted to be Johnny Carson, but I moved into sports.

So when I was a kid, my favorite show, and I felt like I was the only person in high school, and really that my favorite show was like Johnny Carson and then David Letterman, and I love both of them. And they were very different personalities. Carson was doing a show for the country, didn't do political stuff. It was always about the audience. It could be the potato chip lady. It could be Don Rickles. He could work with anybody. He was a guy from Nebraska, small town. I read every Johnny Carson book. Even the one his former lawyer wrote, which lawyers should not write about their clients. I just love Johnny Carson. My dad loved him.

And then I moved into Letterman, and Letterman was doing a show almost as an inside joke. You always felt like if you could get the inside joke, you were a little smarter than everybody else. And those were the two I grew up with. And I think there's a lot of talented people. I know Jimmy Kimmel a little bit. Conan O'Brien, I think is very funny.

My wife already likes his podcast now. Craig Ferguson makes me laugh. He's raw. you know, all these guys that have done it. John Stewart's brilliant guy. And most of them, by the way, all lean left. I mean, Leno, I think, is more moderate to write. I've talked to Jay once at the comedy store in Hermosa.

I would guess he's more moderate to write. But I don't really care. It's all about the joke. And most comedians are making fun of people in power. So it's kind of, that's funnier than siding with the rich, powerful. It's more fun to make fun of the powerful. So in my life, I've always felt comedians kind of lean left to pick on people of power and poke them in the ribs. And that's fine.

I don't really care if the joke's funny. It's all about the joke. So, but there was a moment with Stephen Colbert. So most of the great ones were all stand-up comedians. John Stewart did stand up. Bill Mars show, which is political by nature, did stand up. Letterman did stand up. Leno did stand up.

Conan was a writer. And when he first got on the air, he was funny, but I didn't think he was a great television presence. I never thought Leno had a great TV presence. I thought Letterman, who was a local weatherman at one point, just understood the, you know, like the vagaries, the ins and outs and the angles of television very well. So did Johnny Carson. Carson's the best, in my opinion, that's ever done it. But I'm old school on that.

And then there's Stephen Colbert, who really got his, he played a character on John Stewart show as kind of a far-right buffoonie chest out, full of information and opinions, or full of opinions, not much information. And I love that character. I thought the character was funny. And then they gave him a show. And it was really bumpy at first.

And then politics became front and center. And he was kind of politically savvy. And the show did well. But I've always admired comedy more than acting. Comedians write their own stuff. You get one take. Doing live television is really. effing hard.

And it's just, it's just, they're really gifted. Actors use somebody else's script. They get 30 takes. They have perfect angles and lighting. You can screw up very easily doing late night TV and doing stand-up comedy. But what I always respected about comedians is that even if somebody heckled Jerry Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld or Colin Quinn, who's another guy, I just think just really, really uniquely, generationally talented.

I love Colin Quinn. Years ago, I was with a friend from Portland, Brian. We poked our head into Carolines, and Colin Quinn, lucky enough, was doing an act. And I remember just sitting there walking out saying, like, I hope America gets how smart that guy is and how funny Colin Quinn is. He's so good. And now he's done some Broadway stuff. And he and Seinfeld and Chris Rock have always been close. But most of the great ones, I just, I admire how talented they are. And the thing to note about comedians is when, even when people are heckling them or things go, sideways, Carson was a master at this, they're always true to the joke. If you hackle a comedian, he's just trying to make it funny. When Carson would misread something or the joke would bomb, it was often funnier than the jokes that hit. It's all about the joke. Don't step on the joke. It's all about the audience and hitting the joke. It doesn't matter if you're Dave Chappelle, another guy who's brilliant, Ricky Gervais, who may be smarter than all of them. And so I was willing to give Stephen Colbert a chance. And I think he's a really bright guy. But there was a moment that the defining moment for Stephen Colbert, who by the way is going to be let go in May by CBS, and CBS isn't

replacing it. They're getting rid of the business. And that we could talk all day long about how YouTube and young viewers don't watch TV and young people are the ones that stay up late at night to watch those shows. And it was inevitable and they were all going to die eventually. But Colbert had a moment, it was during COVID when his buddy also, I think it's fair to say, a left-leener John Stewart came on the show. And Stuart worked hard for this bit. You could tell from the writing, how he delivered it. I mean, John had worked on this bit. You can look it up. And his buddy stepped on the bit, Stephen Colbert, because he was such a partisan hack that he didn't care about the audience. He didn't care about his friend. And he didn't care about the bit. He cared about his

opinion on COVID, which, by the way, I lived in California. As Bill Morris noted many times, Florida may have gotten it more right than California. We were guessing for three months, but we weren't guessing after three months. We knew kids weren't dying. There's a real argument that Florida did a better job with it than California. Don't want to get into that. But one of the reasons Marr has endured is that Bill is willing to go after his own side. He's not tribal or parochial to the point or two insular where he can't look and say, you know, liberals are wrong here. And that's why I've been on Mars show once. I have so, I just think he's as good as anybody who's ever done. done it in that political space. I think he's the best that's ever done it. I think John Stewart's second. And so Stewart comes on, a left-leener to Colbert, his buddy. Remember, Stuart's the one that helped put Colbert in the forefront. And Stewart, you know, clearly worked on this bit. And Colbert kept stepping on it over and over again. And Carson wouldn't do that. And Letterman wouldn't do that. I mean, when John Stewart is doing stuff, And somebody comes on and says something that may not, he may not agree with.

I've seen John do this so many times. He will uncomfortably laugh and say, don't make me go there. Don't make me laugh at this. This is wrong. You're wrong. But he doesn't get in the way of the joke. Because the fucking joke is sacred for comedians. They write their own.

They perform one time. It's hard as hell. Respect the performer. Respect the joke. respect how hard writing is. There's no 34 takes. It's live. It is live.

And Stuart came on to deliver this. And it was just a funny, I mean, it's about the Wuhan Lab. And Colbert stepped on it. He just couldn't get over himself. And it elicited such a visceral reaction to me. I've never seen him the same way. I just, it's just like, okay, he's, I don't care what the ratings are. it doesn't matter. For me, there was a certain Rubicon or something that was past.

I just couldn't get past. I just couldn't get past it. And maybe it didn't, maybe if you're left leaning, you loved that moment because you thought the conservatives were crazy to speculate that maybe it was a man-made virus, which I think is a very reasonable thing to discuss. I mean, that's, that's worthy of discussion. I mean, that's the whole point of this, getting through, stuff, getting over stuff, working our way through turbulence and social discomfort is the discussion. So to me, I don't have a lot of pity for Stephen Colbert. He'll get a job. He'll be fine. But he wasn't, he didn't honor his friend. He didn't honor the joke. He was more about himself. He wasn't about the audience. He wasn't about making us laugh. Go watch a great comedian.

By the way, the other moment that I remember with Colbert show is the Ricky. Jervais' religion discussion, where again, Jervais is just a really smart guy. And again, Colbert can't get out of his own way. He just doesn't, he's just so uncomfortable that it's making, it's moving in a direction that he doesn't agree with. It's about the joke and the story. It's about the audience and making them laugh and entertain. And I don't know why I'm so worked up over this. But the Hollywood reporter talked about it today, these shows, shows for the last seven years, they've lost half of their ad revenue. Why? Two reasons. One, young viewers don't stay up and watch TV anymore. The only thing anybody watches on TV is sports.

I mean, that's pretty much it, sports and news. And in every four years, the political cable shows explode. The second reason they're dying is because the late night shows talk about politics. And that's a no-fly zone for a lot of advertisers. Listen, even Fox News, which is a juggernaut, a behemoth on cable television, there are advertisers that are not interested and don't want to be on the shows, like big name advertisers, because they just don't want to get in the crosshairs of polarizing controversial discussions. And that's okay. MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, there are advertisers that don't want any part of that. And I respect the advertisers.

It's one of the reasons I don't talk a lot of politics on my show. If I want to talk them, I can talk them on the volume. That's my company. So the Colbert show was losing $40 million a year, and it's been losing, hemorrhaging money for years and years, and it's got a huge staff. And so, yeah, like, I mean, that's not a viable business. And, but that moment bothered me so much that I had to literally on a Saturday come talk about it. Because somebody who grew up with Carson and loved Letterman, and I've got so much respect for comedians. I mean, I brought Norm McDongle on my show, Bill Maher on my show, David Spade on my show.

probably a couple others. I just, to me, the ability to write your own stuff, perform, and I mean, you're just putting yourself out there. The idea that you're going to go on a show and you've been working on, Norm McDonald would tell these four-minute jokes. Do you know how much courage it would take to go out with a joke that's never been told? And Conan O'Brien never got in the way of the joke. Conan O'Brien would sit there patiently waiting to reward Norm as Norm would reward him.

And I think that's amazing that the code, like Conan O'Brien more than once is uncomfortable with Norm McDonald because his jokes were going forever, the moth joke and forever and ever. And you're waiting for the punchline. And Norm's a little different. Rest in peace. But that bothered me. That always drove me nuts about Colbert. It's just so partisan, so much about his belief that he stepped.

Don Stewart. And I think they're great friends. It just drove me nuts. And I've just wasted everybody's 20 minutes. But it's a Saturday. That's how I felt. And this is more kind of an ode to how gifted and great our comedians are. Ricky Jervais. I mean, I remember watching Dennis Miller tapes. Letterman. God, you know, you just watched him for years. And I, you know, people over the course of my life, like, who is your inspiration? And I love Costas and Al Michaels. And I mean, there's just Joe Davis, Joe Buck. I mean, there's so many gifted guys out there doing play-by-play. Kevin Burckhardt, his life story is amazing. But there's something about comedians to just write your own stuff, perform it. You get one time,

knowing it can completely bomb. There's just, I've got a soft, spot for how smart they are, how clever, empty canvas. They do their own work. They do their own painting and are willing to walk on stage and just bomb. Actors don't have to go through that, right? They get 40 takes. Somebody else writes it. Happy Saturday. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on

the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She can win. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.