The WSJ on Late Night TV’s Ad Revenue Decline, and CBS’s Decision to Cancel The Late Show

Joe Flint and John Jurgensen, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (gift link):

But digital advertising revenue hasn’t made up for the fall in ad dollars going to traditional broadcast programming. Spending on linear advertising for the late-night segment on ABC, CBS and NBC fell from $439 million in 2018 to $221 million in 2024, according to Guideline, an ad-tracking platform.

That’s a precipitous decline, if accurate. But still, given that Colbert’s The Late Show has consistently been the highest-rated overall and tied with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live for the 18–49 year-old demographic, it feels very safe to presume that it generated at least a full third — say, $75–80 million — of that $221 million total. It’s reported that Colbert’s salary is $20 million per year, and Colbert himself said the other night the show employs 200 staff.

If, as anonymous CBS sources are claiming to multiple outlets, the show lost $40 million last year, that means it costs something on the order of $120 million per year to produce, or $100 million after Colbert’s salary. With a staff of 200 people, that’s an average salary of $500,000. I know it costs money to heat and cool the Ed Sullivan theater, and I’m sure there are other costs. But there is no way the average salary of a staff member on the show is half a million per year.

And, even if somehow The Late Show did lose money last year, it seems implausible that CBS wouldn’t first ask for budget cuts — staff reductions, a salary cut for Colbert, whatever else might possibly be running up a $120 million/year budget — before just shutting the whole thing down. NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers sadly cut the live studio band last year, for example. $75 million per year in ad revenue is way down from its Letterman era heyday, but that’s surely more than enough to produce a talk show. Also, all of this back-of-the-napkin budget analysis neglects to assign any promotional value to the show. CBS gets to promote everything else on the network to over 2 million people per night with house ads during commercial breaks and guests on the show from other CBS programs.

★ Sunday, 20 July 2025