After Colbert, what's the future of late-night TV on CBS and beyond?

Everyone knows that Stephen Colbert and CBS's "Late Show" franchise are officially saying goodbye this month. But nobody really knows what happens next.

For the past 10 months, since a frustrated Colbert announced the cancellation of the three-decade-old talk show in July 2025, the countdown to his farewell has been looming over Colbert and the whole of the late-night genre like a guillotine with a threadbare rope. Now there are mere days left until the May 21 finale (which will air without any competition from his peers), and only uncertainty looms on the other side of Colbert's farewell.

Even though CBS announced that comedy series "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen" will take over Colbert's 11:35 pm weeknight slot on the network after "Late Show" concludes, it's unclear if that is a temporary or long-term solution. And as Colbert's colleagues Jimmy Fallon (NBC's "The Tonight Show"), Jimmy Kimmel (ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!") and Seth Meyers (NBC's "Late Night") resume their normal routines in a world without Colbert's nightly voice, will they be waiting for the blade to fall on their own necks?

"It does feel like the end of an era," says Jason Lynch, curator at The Paley Center for Media. "For decades, it seemed unfathomable that late night as we know it would ever cease to exist. Now, it’s fair to speculate if the current group of late-night hosts will be the very last people to ever have those jobs."

Will CBS ever return to a traditional late-night talk show?

Is CBS done with late night talks hosts, or just hosts who sound like Colbert?

From the moment Colbert announced the cancellation of his show, speculation has run rampant about the motive behind the move from CBS and parent company Paramount (now Paramount Skydance).

At the time, Paramount called it a "purely financial" decision, while commentators cried foul and pointed out that Colbert had recently criticized his bosses and the company was in the middle of a merger with Skydance. Skydance was helmed by CEO David Ellison, son of prominent Trump supporter Larry Ellison (David Ellison is now the CEO of the newly merged Paramount Skydance, which is in the process of acquiring storied Hollywood studio Warner Bros. as well). Did prominent Trump critic Colbert not fit in with the political mood of the new regime? Was Paramount worried about approval for its merger? Or was it purely mercenary as the media industry fights to stay alive?

"It's possible that two things can be true," Colbert himself said recently to the New York Times. "Broadcast can be in trouble. They cannot monetize because of things like YouTube, because of the competition of streaming. They've got the books, and I do not have any desire to debate them over what they say their business model is and how it does not work for them anymore. But less than two years before they called to say it's over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed."

"Comics Unleashed" is a very different show than "Late Show," and it is ultimately less expensive.

Media mogul and producer Byron Allen campaigned heavily to get his self-funded show in the time slot, and he was convincing enough for CBS to grant it to him for the 2026-2027 season. But like any TV show in the current media landscape, there are no guarantees about the future.

Claire Ransom, a digital marketing and PR executive and founder of Aloha Digital, says "Comics" "works well for CBS if the goal is immediate cost control and predictable revenue, but it's less clear whether it aligns with a long-term brand strategy in a flagship broadcast slot, where networks historically use late night to build cultural relevance."

"Current reporting suggests CBS is explicitly using this period as an interim phase while it develops other ideas," Ransom adds, "which means Allen’s tenure isn't guaranteed."

What could go in the time slot if "Comics" doesn't last? Well, there's always the possibility that the network could simply run reruns of prime-time programming or some other extremely cheap, outsourced show just to keep the lights on. But saying goodbye to "Late Show" doesn't mean CBS is forbidden from trying the traditional (or nontraditional) talk show format again someday.

While ratings are declining on broadcast at 11:35 p.m., there's no denying that distinctly conservative talk host Greg Gutfeld is drawing in viewers at 10 p.m. on Fox News. Gutfeld, however, has the major advantage of airing in the earlier primetime window, where more viewers are simply awake and tuning in across all networks. Shows like "Chicago PD" on NBC or "Boston Blue" on CBS routinely draw 3 or 4 million viewers at 10 p.m. (Gutfeld hovers around 3 million). Will CBS one day choose a host with a different point of view for 11:35 p.m.? Onlookers can only guess and speculate.

Is this the end of Colbert or the end of late-night TV as we know it?

For years, broadcast late-night TV comedians have seen declining audiences, leaned more toward political humor over cultural takes and struggled to adapt to a modern media landscape where streaming services, YouTube and TikTok compete with traditional TV viewing.In 2025, CBS ended its 12:30 a.m. series, comedy panel show "After Midnight," after just over a year, when host Taylor Tomlinson decided to leave in favor of her standup career. Seth Meyers' "Late Night" on NBC axed its live, in-studio band as a cost-cutting measure in 2024. "Tonight Show" went from five nights a week to four in 2024, joining the other late-night shows. Conan O'Brien, who very briefly inherited the "Tonight Show" throne (in 2009 and 2010), has moved from decades of traditional late-night TV on NBC and later TBS to podcasting (now itself a huge media market). Samantha Bee's TBS talk show was also canceled back in July 2022.

But things are not as simple as ratings, TikTok views and dollars and cents. Whether we tune in live every weeknight or not, late-night TV is still one of the biggest places we go to process major cultural moments, from the shooting death of Charlie Kirk (which was the impetus of Jimmy Kimmel's big controversy in September 2025) to the release of a new Taylor Swift album. That's likely part of why Colbert's old pal Jon Stewart, who made his mark as a preeminent voice in late night on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" from 1997-2015, has actually returned to his old home once a week to say his piece about politics and current events. A short stint in a streaming Apple TV investigative show ("The Problem with Jon Stewart," 2021-2023) wasn't as good as sitting behind the same old "Daily" desk at 11:00 p.m. Traditional late night is even trickling over to new media instead of the other way around: Comedian and actor Ben Gleib is launching "Good Night with Ben Gleib" on YouTube on May 28 with major veteran late night producers from "The Daily Show."

But some in Hollywood aren't very optimistic about the future of late-night talk.

"I would be surprised if it lasts more than a year or so," David Letterman, the original "Late Show" host and legend of the genre, told The New York Times this month. "Well, maybe specific shows. I don't think it'll ever go away because it's just the best. It's humans talking to humans."

"It would be very surprising to me if it, it went away entirely," Kimmel said in January while accepting the best talk show award at the Critics Choice Awards. "Maybe it won't be as big, maybe there won't be a big band welcoming the host of the stage, maybe there won't be 15 writers, but I think there will be some version of late-night talk show."

"Late-night talk shows have been an essential part of television going back to when 'The Tonight Show' began in 1954," says Paley curator Lynch. "The current group of shows and hosts have proven that there’s still plenty of life left in the format, and what happens on those shows still occasionally has the potential to make global headlines and dominate the pop culture conversation."

Just look at the latest feud between Trump and Kimmel, or the breathless coverage of the final few episodes of Colbert's reign, or Fallon launching yet another new show on NBC. There's history here, and powerful voices. There's cultural cachet and moments of unity and catharsis to be found in these men in suits telling jokes (it wouldn't hurt for more women to get in the game). There is value, even if the genre has to evolve.

We have to follow the laughs to find out what happens next.