By L. Matthew Meyers
It’s the money. It’s always the money. That, to quote David Mamet’s “Heist,” is why it’s called money.
Skydance wants to buy Paramount. Before the ink’s even dry, Trump sues Paramount for screwing with a Harris interview on CBS News. Case settles. Sixteen million. Colbert gets canned three days later. The Left loses its mind. “They’re coming for our comedy.”
No. They’re not.
A buyout means cuts. It means consolidation. It means blood on the floor. It’s how it works. Always has. Always will. You don’t need a shadowy motive when the ledger’s bleeding.
Colbert’s show was hemorrhaging cash to the tune of forty million a year. The show cost a hundred and thirty. He took home twenty while sitting in a chair and sneering. Ratings slid 15%. Nobody’s laughing. Worse, nobody’s watching. 2.4 million viewers doesn’t cut it anymore in late-night, not with that cost structure. Letterman never lost that kind of money. Not even close.
So what do the bosses do? They sharpen the knives.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“Network executives had been considering ending The Late Show for some time, and discussions heated up earlier this summer… CBS executives opted around July 4 to cancel the show… waiting until Colbert was back from vacation to tell his representatives.”
You hear that? They didn’t wait for Trump. They waited for Colbert to get back from the beach.
This wasn’t a hit job. It was a mercy killing. And it wasn’t just him. There are no sacred cows in a deal like this. Ask around the neighborhood (or the aforementioned WSJ piece). Seth Meyers? Forced to fire his band. James Corden leaves? CBS brings in Taylor Tomlinson. Eighteen months later – poof! Show’s dead. NBC? Bracing for cuts the second Lorne Michaels steps down from Saturday Night Live. He also produces The Tonight Show, and they’re already counting the bodies.
You think Colbert’s some kind of exception? He’s just the next name on the list.
You think a buyer walks in and doesn’t ask what’s burning money? You think they say, “Well, we can’t touch that, he’s our guy”? No. They get out the cleaver. They cut. That’s what happens in a buyout. You trim to sell.
I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. You ever work for a company that got sold? Then you know. You’re not a person. You’re a line item.
Still don’t believe me? Disney bought Fox and axed departments. AT&T took Time Warner and “reorganized.” Paramount is selling to Skydance? It slashed 15 percent of staff before Trump even sniffed a second term. The entire TV division went away, along with $500 million in expenses.
Colbert’s cancellation fits the pattern. It’s not a mystery. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s capitalism.
But we’re told, “Look at the timing!” As if corporate restructuring waits on political symbolism. Please. If Ellison wanted to muzzle CBS News, he’d start with CBS News. Not Colbert. You don’t shut down the mosquito to silence the zoo.
And yet, oh boy, here comes the fantasy: Ellison buys the entire studio to get at one newsroom. You hear that? Not a news segment. Not a reporter. The whole damn studio. So he can… what? Put Ben Shapiro in a blazer in front of the CBS logo?
And let’s pretend, just for laughs, that CBS News was neutral. You try turning that ship rightward. Watch your staff quit. Watch your ratings tank. Watch the unions knock. You’ll be begging for the old bias back.
Wait – you mean CBS’ left-wing bias will be chilled? I guess we’ll all suffer under the weight of actual neutral journalism.
Look, here’s the thing people won’t say out loud: Colbert got canceled because he wasn’t funny. He wasn’t Johnny Carson. He wasn’t even Dave. He got on his soapbox, preached to the choir, and turned half the country off. You don’t build an audience by telling half of them they’re stupid. You don’t win eyeballs by wagging your finger. Alienating 50 percent of your consumer is not a viable business model. You don’t mix business with politics unless you’re prepared to lose both.
Colbert made it about himself. That’s the sin. Not the jokes. Not the truth. The ego. The assumption that he mattered more than the audience. Jerry Seinfeld has said this more than once, publicly: “It’s not about you, it’s about them.”
Now, about free speech:
Yes, there are attacks. Real ones. You know them when you see them. IRS assaults. DOJ weaponization. Social media de-platforming, de-monetization, and shadow banning. COVID-19 dissent blacklisted. You see the hands on the throat…as well as those who claim it’s somehow justified. But crying “Censorship!” every time a late-night show tanks? That’s crying wolf with a megaphone in your hand.
Colbert didn’t get silenced. He got dropped. Because the show didn’t work.
That’s not tyranny. That’s Tuesday in television.
RELATED: Oh-So-Sad Writers Guild Demands Investigation Into Colbert Cancellation, Calls It a Bribe to Trump
DIVE DEEPER: The Numbers Don’t Lie: CBS’s Colbert Cancellation Is All About Economics
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was edited post-publication for clarity.)
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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