It’s currently the number one late night show. It’s not about money. It’s because the president pressured them after Colbert called the network out Tuesday for taking a bribe.
I think Gutfeld is number 1 overall, and has been for a while.
But TV ratings overall are down so low, I haven’t had cable since 2003, and at the time people thought I was a radical. Now it seems like the people that have cable are the rare ones, Especially if there is noone over 45 in the house.
There is a reason they all format their shows in a way that is easy to break up into youtube videos. If they didn’t, most kids under 30 wouldn't even know who they are
I'd never heard of Gutfeld - I'm a Brit - so checked it out - https://youtu.be/MflEEkCFtHY It doesn't seem very good..? The first few seconds is him jokinging insulting various democrats and the audience groaning.
His show airs much earlier than the others which is why it’s not really considered the top late night. The rankings I was referring to were the true late night shows. Gutfeld is basically prime time.
How can they be so expensive? Unless you mean in relation to ad revenue.
It's one host, maybe a band, they don't pay the guests cause their there to pitch their show/music/book/film. Maybe all the extra staff they need to write jokes and whatnot. Maybe all the drug advertisements really don't pay all that much anymore.
Late night talk shows are extremely cheap, compared to regular scripted television. It's one of the reasons why NBC was so excited about moving Jay Leno to 10pm when Conan took over The Tonight Show:
> The Jay Leno Show WILL be significantly cheaper than any primetime scripted show NBC could program. Primetime scripted programming usually costs about $3 million per hour; so the five hours NBC is revamping would total about $15 million per week. This new Leno show will cost NBC less than $2 million per week. ... So, not only does NBC get to KEEP its primetime hours, it gets to program them with a more cost-effective show.
Supposedly, Colbert makes $15 million a year, which is about $100,000 per episode. It's not really outrageous for a host of a national television program.
It's surprising that the most successful late night show is going away first, and the optics of it happening while Paramount is trying to curry favor with the Trump administration couldn't be worse.