Perhaps no single entity was more decimated by the rise of streaming services than the Nielsen rating system. As broadcast and cable viewership was traded for streaming platforms, it became extremely difficult to chart the popularity of media. Streaming services don’t release viewership numbers and many aren’t transparent about the quantifiable success of their programming. Instead of using Nielsen ratings, we have to turn to other sources to understand which shows and movies are popular.
Earlier this week, South Park landed a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount, which allowed the Paramount Plus streaming service exclusivity rights to the show. In 2021, Amazon spent around $250 million to acquire the streaming rights for the “Lord of the Rings,” then allowed that number to skyrocket to $715 million to make the “Rings of Power” television series with the movie’s intellectual property. Further, companies like Peacock saw the value of their older sitcoms, like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation,” and decided to forgo streaming deals altogether by making their own streaming service.
The flip side of this is a constant flow of creatively bankrupt content that gets dumped after it fails to garnish any attention. Movies are frequently dumped onto streaming platforms without a theatrical release. They often fly under the radar and are forgotten or entirely removed without any heartache. Television shows also suffer the same fate when their first season doesn’t become a smash hit. Instead of being given a second season to redeem themselves, they are retitled as a ‘limited series’ and swept under the rug.
Cancellations have meaning. Stephen Colbert being canceled is proof that “The Late Show” was simply not worth CBS’s $40 million expenditure. It’s tricky to compare his show’s ratings to those of streamers, but we can clearly see that he fell to the bottom of the investment totem pole.
In the days following CBS’s announcement, many rushed to Colbert’s defense, with other late night hosts such as David Letterman pretending that the cancellation is a great cultural tragedy. Even Colbert himself has blamed CBS, childishly stating that they are a puppet for Trump’s “fascist regime.” This is an interesting argument from a media landscape that spent years trying to lie about Trump’s character and has only now eased up on the President when faced with defamation lawsuits.
Colbert, and much of television’s old guard, has trouble reckoning with the reality that they aren’t the young, hip, fresh faces they were 30 years ago.
In response to Colbert’s cancellation, another television host, Jon Stewart, went on an expletive laden rant that came across as being extremely out of touch. His white beard and serious, crazed expression wasn’t funny, it was tiresome. It was an old man whose schtick of playing the snarky modern commentator had gotten stale. His response, like Letterman’s, showed that their play at humor was actually a cover for their deeply rooted resentfulness.
For a long time, liberalism tied itself to youth culture. However, after decades of leftist professors, Democrat politicians trying to stay trendy, and wokeness being shoved down young peoples’ throats, they’ve reached a breaking point. Colbert tried to claim that his show was canceled because Trump had targeted him for his jokes. Colbert cried out that his freedom of speech was being attacked, that his personal liberties were being invaded – an allegation that causes most traditional conservatives to laugh. After years of being arrested for praying outside of abortion clinics and being told they were racist for questioning DEI programs, Colbert’s attempt to play the victim feels pathetically childish.
The most highly coveted television demographic is 18-24 year olds, and Colbert’s draw for them was dropping steeply. At times, less than 200,000 of these young people were tuning in to his show. Primarily, he was drawing in older audiences who had grown accustomed to the show and were already familiar with the late night format. In comparison, Joe Rogan’s podcast reaches up to 13.4 million people in the 18-34 age range.
Rogan is not a particularly young man, but he’s not clinging to outdated jokes to keep himself relevant. Colbert, and many of his cronies, are too embarrassingly bitter for young audiences to connect with. They see him as a school marm, pushing vaccines and pretending that awkward Kamala Harris is “it.” The last remnants of the comedians who towed liberalism’s line for the past 30 years have now fallen prey to their own radicalization. Young people see through Colbert’s tackiness and turn off the television.
“The Late Show” being canceled while “South Park” scores billions is a sign of where the culture is headed. “South Park” is deeply flawed, but it’s unafraid to capitalize on free speech to make fun of all political parties. “The Tonight Show” was so willing to bend the knee to the woke prerogative that it alienated its most lucrative audience.
After the cancellation was announced, Trump tweeted about how other late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel should also be concerned for their jobs. The Left pretended that this was a “threat” from a censorious, “fascist” government. Trump doesn’t even need to threaten network executives into canceling shows that criticize him – bad ratings, poor word of mouth, and meager cultural impact will take care of that in short order. If old hack comedians can’t get over themselves, they’ll naturally be left without an audience.
