CBS is learning the hard way just how much Stephen Colbert meant to its late-night lineup.
Monday night marked the network’s first evening without Colbert at the helm of The Late Show, and the ratings tell a stark story: viewers clearly made their choice elsewhere.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! dominated the coveted 11:35 p.m. slot, drawing 2.185 million total viewers—a massive 53% increase from the same night last year. The 18-49 demographic, the holy grail for advertisers, surged by 178% to 295,000 viewers.
NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon trailed in second, pulling in 1.301 million viewers with a modest 10% year-over-year growth, and 194,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo—a respectable rise, but nothing compared to Kimmel’s explosion.
Meanwhile, CBS struggled to fill the void left by Colbert. Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed, which premiered the day after Colbert signed off, drew just 628,000 viewers, a staggering 65% drop for that time slot compared to last year. In the key 18-49 demographic, a mere 82,000 viewers tuned in.
Allen’s show runs under a “time buy” agreement with CBS: he purchases the time slot and covers production costs himself, giving him the freedom to sell advertising—but also meaning he bears the brunt of the low ratings. CBS described the arrangement as a smart business move, claiming it reduces annual losses of $40 million down to a $15 million profit, effectively swinging the network’s bottom line by $55 million.
The transition comes as CBS attempts to navigate a late-night landscape without its longtime star, who signed off last month after a decade behind The Late Show desk. Colbert took over from David Letterman in 2015 and left with a festive farewell featuring Paul McCartney as his final guest.
The network first revealed Colbert’s exit in July 2025, framing the decision as financial, though critics questioned the timing—days after Colbert publicly criticized CBS over a $16 million settlement in President Donald Trump’s lawsuit concerning a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump didn’t hold back on social media, posting:
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
