Did people actually miss who CBS believed to be the real key to the future of its late-night lineup? As in: not Stephen Colbert?
Back in March, Taylor Tomlinson decided she would take her popular stand-up act on the road full time rather than continue hosting After Midnight, the comedy pseudo-game show that had been running on CBS at 12:37am weeknights.
At the time, the move was a surprise. Tomlinson was doing well, pulling in a solid core of younger viewers—and she seemed enthused. Just two months earlier, as part of an interview marking After Midnight‘s first anniversary, she told me: “At first I was like, oh maybe I’m not good at this. Now I’ve taken to it.”
But the prospect of a third season did not enthuse as much, apparently.
The bigger surprise came when CBS announced it would simply close After Midnight down rather than search for another host. According to all involved, the network had already quietly renewed the show for a third season. It was only after Tomlinson bailed that CBS chose to scuttle it entirely.
Cut to four months later. CBS drops the most explosive bombshell in recent late-night history: it is canceling the apparent jewel in its crown—the 30-plus-year-old Late Show, hosted by the multi-Emmy-winning Colbert.
In the weeks since that brutal shake-up, the TV industry has been hunting for a smoking gun, tangled up in the billions-drenched takeover of CBS’s parent, Paramount Global, by Skydance Media.
Then last week, George Cheeks, CEO of TV Media for CBS/Paramount, added a dash of hot sauce to all the dishy speculation. Speaking at a press conference marking the closing of the Skydance deal, Cheeks said that when Tomlinson walked away from After Midnight, CBS came to the conclusion it “couldn’t stay in that daypart.”
Yes, he also cited challenges with advertiser support and professed the network’s “love and admiration” for Colbert and the show David Letterman created. But the Rubicon into no-late-night land, Cheeks suggested, was crossed because Taylor Tomlinson bolted.
Not the reported tens of millions being lost. Not the insults tossed at Colbert from the leader of the free world. Not the merger. Not the fear that the FCC might threaten the licenses of CBS-owned stations unless Colbert was offered as a ritual sacrifice. No—the trigger, according to Cheeks, was the sudden, unexpected flight of the star of its less-than-two-year-old late-night satellite.
Does that make sense?
In a vacuum, obviously not. In a vortex, maybe yes. Late night would prefer the vacuum, because the vortex is pulling it under.
The truth is, late-night shows are fighting for their lives amid shrinking audiences, worsening demographics, and diminshing ad revenues.
Is it possible CBS was considering replacing its top-rated but money-losing, ideologically polarizing 11:35pm show with its younger-skewing, cheaper, less political 12:37am entry?
If there’s anything we’ve learned in recent weeks, it seems anything’s possible.
CBS may well have seen a rising late-night star in Taylor Tomlinson. Her mix of personal and generally non-political material—Christian upbringing, family life, mental health struggles—certainly wouldn’t hurt her appeal to a network weary of nightly political combat.
The twist? After Midnight was produced in part by Spartina Productions—owned by Stephen Colbert. If CBS saw Tomlinson as the future, it was a future Colbert was already helping to make.
A less dramatic reading of Cheeks’s comment: had Tomlinson stayed, the status quo would have prevailed, at leasr for the time being. Yes, Colbert’s show was losing money, but it still delivered affiliates a stable two-hour block to sell local ads against. Faced with the cost and instability of relaunching After Midnight, CBS instead asked itself whether late night was worth it at all in 2025.
Either way, Tomlinson now has a new—and improbable—footnote in television history: the comic whose departure helped take down Stephen Colbert.
When she left, Colbert wished her well. What he didn’t know was that she was taking CBS’s late night—and his own show—with her.
Leave a Reply