On Vacation, Colbert Didn’t Know ‘Late Show’ Was Dead. His Manager Did
SCOOP: James Dixon waited two weeks to tell his star and more new details about who knew what and when, and what comes next
I cover TV from L.A. I reported on who might buy distressed cable assets, what’s expected from Cindy Holland in her upcoming role at “New Paramount” and scooped Neil Druckmann’s exit from HBO’s The Last of Us. Email me at lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
On June 27, just a few days before Paramount would announce its $16 million 60 Minutes settlement with President Trump, James Dixon received a call from CBS executives informing the prominent talent manager that the network was walking away from his client Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Dixon knew the news more than two weeks before his client, I’ve learned.
The franchise, which started in 1993 with David Letterman behind the desk, will soon go the way of other late-night offerings including CBS’ own After Midnight and The Late Late Show With James Corden as well as NBC’s Last Call With Carson Daly and its replacement, A Little Late With Lilly Singh. The genre’s footprint continues shrink amid a depressed ad market that saw the losses on Colbert’s show, which is No. 1 in late night with an average of 2.4 million viewers, grow to around $40 million last year. (Late Show costs $100 million annually to produce, per a source.)
Colbert, though, would not learn the news of his show’s demise until he returned from vacation. It was after Colbert taped the Wednesday, July 16 episode, I’m told, that Dixon informed him of CBS’ decision. The following day, Colbert stunned the TV industry and announced the cancellation at the top of the show.
The timing of the cancellation news break — it came three days after a post-vacation Colbert blasted Paramount’s settlement with Trump as “a big fat bribe” — has created terrible optics for the media conglomerate as it awaits formal approval of its merger with Skydance. Nevertheless, multiple sources say the shocking decision to retire the Late Show brand was truly driven by financials as the late-night space has continued to face declining ad revenue and dwindling linear viewers. What’s more, while Colbert may have been the highest-rated of what remains of the broadcast late-night talkers, The Late Show’s digital footprint — and its corresponding ad revenue — is far less than shows fronted by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.
Sources tell me it is standard procedure for network executives to communicate news about Late Show through Dixon (who did not respond to multiple requests for comment). The manager — who also reps Jon Stewart and Kimmel — also received a call a year ago from CBS executives informing him of impending budget cuts to Late Show, sources say. These same sources say five staffers were laid off a year ago as additional “nips and tucks” were made across the show, and Colbert, who’s paid $15 million a year, is said to have helped come up with unique ways to reduce its budget. At the time, insiders were optimistic that the advertising market would turn around.
That turnaround never came. Instead, CBS quietly made the decision that Colbert and The Late Show will sign off for good in May 2026. Today, I’ve got the unreported backstory behind that call — and what it means for Colbert, CBS, and the future of late night. You’ll learn:
New details of what insiders say is behind the surprise timing of CBS’ decision to end the show
The inside players: Who knew, who didn’t, and how the decision was kept under wraps
“Horrible” optics: Why proximity to the Trump settlement didn’t matter
The unexpected way Skydance’s David Ellison and Cindy Holland factored into the calculus and timing
The sensitive steps around telling Colbert, his staff and the world
Where else CBS is cutting back, from Tracker to The Talk, and what’s next
The quiet deal behind Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed, which took the 12:30 a.m. slot on CBS
How YouTube and digital spinoffs help keep Fallon and Kimmel on broadcast (for now)
The backup plans CBS didn’t pursue — including pay cuts, replacements, and a Paramount+ pivot
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