Breaking down claim CBS was losing $40M a year on Colbert’s ‘Late Show’

Rumors about the $40 million annual losses appeared to stem from reports published by a media outlet called Puck and the New York Post.

In July 2025, as some lawmakers and critics of CBS’ decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” questioned the network’s motives, social media posts claimed the popular late-night show was losing at least $40 million per year.

Snopes readers also searched our website to ask whether the rumor about CBS losing $40 million annually on Colbert’s show was true.

The claim appeared to stem from reports published by a media outlet called Puck (archived) and the New York Post (archived) on July 18, 2025. However, Snopes could not corroborate the reporting because it relied on information provided by anonymous sources.

Snopes reached out to a CBS representative for “The Late Show” for comment on the losses and did not receive a response.

Here’s a breakdown of what we know about reports that CBS was losing $40 million a year on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”:

Reports cite at least $40M in annual losses

On July 18, 2025, Puck published an article (archived) that touched on the reported losses CBS suffered, titled “CBS in Distress: Colbert’s Exit & The Rhodes-Weiss ERA.” Charles Gasparino, a senior correspondent for Fox Business Network, also reported (archived) on the alleged losses in a story published by the New York Post on the same day.

Matthew Belloni, Puck’s founding partner and author of the report on Colbert’s show, told Snopes he obtained the information in his article “from multiple anonymous sources with knowledge of the show’s finances.” He added that the $40 million number was “subsequently confirmed by multiple outlets,” including The Wall Street Journal (archived). Belloni did not provide additional documentation or evidence to corroborate his reporting.

Sources reportedly told Belloni that CBS executives were “discussing the future of the Late Show franchise for months” before the network announced its cancellation, according to the article. The program “has been losing more than $40 million a year for CBS,” Belloni reported, adding that this “doesn’t include some ancillary revenue,” or the extra money a company makes apart from its main products or services.

“While the show still garners an average of 2.47 million viewers a night, leads its 11:35 rivals in total audience, and just this week scored its ninth consecutive Emmy nomination for outstanding talk/variety series, its ad revenue has plummeted precipitously since the 2021-22 season,” Belloni wrote.

Some people have speculated that CBS canceled “The Late Show” for political reasons due, in part, to Colbert’s frequent criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump.

However, several sources at both CBS and Skydance, which is poised to acquire CBS’ parent company Paramount Global, insisted the decision to cancel the late-night show was “based on economics, not politics,” according to the Puck report.

That’s not the case across the board, according to Belloni’s report. He wrote that “two other people with deep ties to CBS and ‘Late Show’ suspect otherwise,” adding that executives didn’t ask key talent to take pay cuts, fire people or slash costs.

CBS said in a statement that the show’s ending was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

The New York Post also reported that CBS canceled “The Late Show” due to tens of millions of dollars in annual losses rather than politics, citing unnamed sources.

“CBS brass say they pulled the plug on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ because of its punishing losses — pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year — and claim politics had nothing to do with it, The Post has learned,” Gasparino wrote in the Post’s report.

“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” a person with direct knowledge of CBS’s decision reportedly told Gasparino. “Colbert might be No. 1, but who watches late night TV anymore?”

Another person close to the decision reportedly said, “Colbert loses $40 million to $50 million a year, so George Cheeks just decided to pull the plug.” Cheeks is co-CEO of Paramount Global, and president and CEO of CBS.

Late-night shows have experienced significant financial setbacks in recent years. The Associated Press reported that broadcast networks took in an estimated $439 million in advertising revenue for their late-night programs as recently as 2018, citing advertising firm Guidelines. In 2024, that number dwindled to $220 million, according to the AP.

Snopes emailed a CBS representative for “The Late Show” for comment on the reported losses but did not receive a response by the time of publication. We also reached out to Gasparino for comment on his report and will update this story if we receive a response.

Colbert addresses ‘leak’ about losses

In his first show back since announcing the cancellation, Colbert addressed reports about the alleged losses. He said:

Over the weekend, somebody at CBS followed up their gracious press release with a gracious anonymous leak, saying they pulled the plug on our show because of losses pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year. $40 million is a big number. I could see us losing $24 million. But where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh yeah.

Colbert was referencing the $16 million Paramount Global decided to pay Trump to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

This wasn’t the first time Colbert expressed disapproval of the settlement. He referred to it as a “big fat bribe” during another show in mid-July 2025.

His “bribe” comment referenced the pending sale of Paramount to Skydance, which needs approval from the Trump administration, as the AP reported. Critics of the deal that ended Trump’s lawsuit “suggested it was primarily to clear a hurdle to that sale,” according to the AP.