The genius and empathy of Colbert
And other late night hosts past and present: Letterman, Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Jon Oliver, Seth Meyers+
One would have to be living under a rock not to see what is happening in media under this administration. Within weeks time, CBS cancelled it’s #1 night program The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, PBS and NPR were defunded, and the orange guy threatened to sue even more news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and NewsCorp over revelations related to Epstein (after suing CBS/60 Minutes). Though Colbert’s network claimed that is was a financial decision (these shows are expensive to produce), that is highly unlikely as a sole reason, with many questioning the timing given CBS is owned by Paramount, which is in the midst of an $8 billion merger with Skydance. That deal has been delayed for months when a suit was filed, and on July 2, Paramount agreed to settle that suit paying out $16 million. This flurry of activity suppressing media is literally 101 in the Authoritarian Playbook, and as someone who is very interested in history, and frequently lectures on the importance of media literacy, all of my alarm bells are going off.
Stephen Colbert is an incredibly intelligent, empathic, authentic, moral compass, and essential cultural voice in late night, we are lucky to have him. He is widely respected and has gone viral multiple times for his real conversation off the show on grief, death, religion, equality, and more. The job of late night hosts are to essentially to process the news and culture of the day through humor, wit, satire, and yes, interviews. Some are stronger than others, but there is no denying that David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Jon Oliver, and Seth Meyers have been exceptional at this and led us through roller coaster times (*I like Jimmy Fallon too, but I put these other comedians in a different intellectual domain, where he is more entertainment skit forward). They have all been vocal against the administration, which is not just a collective way to commiserate, but necessary at this moment. If the networks are nervous, they should be more so for what all the shows will air over the coming 10 months before Stephen’s show ends.
Now, Stephen is a genius and will be fine (remember the Colbert Report before), but that size of a platform is so significant it will certainly leave a big hole. And for his 200+ staff, it is also a crushing blow. As the Guardian so perfectly described Colbert at his best, “nimble, erudite, self-deprecating but exceptionally well-read, Colbert transformed from extremely successful Fox News satirist to the reverend father of late-night TV: principled, authoritative but hardly ever self-righteous, deeply faithful to the American project, steadfastly believing in the decency of others.” So what will happen to the late night shows that have remained largely untouched for decades? With so many shows now relying on social media and youtube clips, let’s hope the intelligent satire so badly needed right now, does not go dark.
Some additional reading around the Colbert decision:
Rolling Stone: Politics, Not Performance, Killed ‘The Late Show + supporters react
Mother Jones: Colbert’s Cancellation Is a Dark Warning
NYT: Canceling ‘The Late Show’ Is Bad News for Late-Night TV
Guardian: Losing Stephen Colbert and The Late Show is a crushing blow
The reply from Colbert
And from Stewart (watch the end, complete with singing choir)
And Letterman, who stated “you can't spell CBS without BS” and put together a 20 minute clip roasting the network