CBS CEO George Cheeks Confirms 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Was Losing "Tens Of Millions Of Dollars" Per Year

CBS CEO George Cheeks revealed that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was canceled after it was losing “tens of millions of dollars” per year.

Back in July, CBS announced it was shutting down The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and retiring the entire The Late Show franchise. In a statement from Cheeks, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf, the trio shared that the show was being canceled due to its finances. They stated, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

Now, in a press conference to address Skydance’s deal to takeover Paramount, Cheeks shared that the show’s losses were “significant” and were in the “tens of millions of dollars.” It’s been reported by insiders that it was losing around $40 million per year.

Cheeks also shared, “The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline. We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show, unfortunately the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going.”

“At the end of the day, it just wasn’t sustainable to continue,” he added.

As for the timing of the cancelation, Cheeks explained, “We were at a period from a production standpoint where every year seasonally, this is [when] we negotiate new deals for writers and producers. In addition, this is going to be the third season of Colbert’s three-year deal. So, in order to do those deals, we were going to have to change the terms from what we traditionally are, September to August to September to May. It was it incumbent upon me and us to make it clear to Stephen and his reps that this is where we were.”

What do you make of Cheeks confirming the show was a loser?

NEXT: Dave Bautista Is In Negotiations To Play The Kurgan In Chad Stahelski's 'Highlander' Reboot