Late-night TV has reacted to the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with shock, sadness, and anger. Samantha Bee, on the other hand, had a very different response to the news, calling it a "no-brainer."
Bee is a late-night TV veteran, spending years as a Daily Show correspondent before moving to TBS to host Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. With that experience comes years of dealing with network interference, corporate politics, and other factors that have little to do with the art of making comedy.
So Bee wasn't exactly surprised to hear CBS and parent company Paramount axed The Late Show earlier this month. “It definitely was hemorrhaging money," Bee said on the Breaking Bread with Tom Papa podcast. "These legacy shows are hemorrhaging money with no real end to that in sight; people are just not tuning in.”
According to Paramount, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert lost $40 million last year on a $100 million budget. The company chose not to take any steps to mitigate those losses that also included keeping Stephen Colbert on the air.
For Bee, part of the issue is that late-night TV shows aren't essential viewing like they were in the past. “People are literally on their phones all the time for one thing, so they actually don’t necessarily need a recap of the day’s events," Bee stated. "They’re very well-versed in what has happened.” Following the news on social media means that by the time 11:30 p.m. rolls around, people know the details and have seen countless reactions.
The comedian didn't completely dismiss the political component behind Paramount's decision. Many critics have argued the company wanted to curry favor with the Trump administration to greenlight its merger with Skydance.
“It is also true that when the president of the United States has to give his sign-off on a corporate merger, the thing you can’t do is make jokes about him," Bee added. Days before the cancellation announcement, Colbert blasted Paramount for reaching a settlement with Donald Trump. "He’s a thin-skinned idiot, and we know he’s like a pernicious cancer, and he cares about that stuff,” Bee said.
On the surface, it sounds like Bee has a cold reaction to the bad news for her fellow Daily Show alum. But she speaks from experience, having been cancelled at TBS while also enduring corporate mergers. Full Frontal ended in June 2022 after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger led to cutbacks. “It’s so much easier for them to cut it loose with this merger coming down the pike,” she told Tom Papa. “It makes the decision such a no-brainer, and probably the most agonizing decisions they were having were about how do we float this?"
It's also slightly easier for Bee to be this frank since she is no longer on the air. Current late-night hosts like Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Jimmy Kimmel can't be expected to come out agreeing with budget cuts in the late-night department or publicly admit to dwindling audiences. But Bee is on the other side of it now and has been through her share of ups and downs to speak with authority.
Bee currently hosts the Choice Words with Samantha Bee podcast, interviewing notable people about turning point decisions they've made.