The cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has sent shockwaves throughout the entertainment and media worlds. But one person who doesn’t seem too shocked is Colin Cowherd.
Cowherd isn’t afraid to have an opinion on anything. And while he’s not quite Stephen A. Smith, he’s been willing to give his takes on sports, media, politics, pop culture, and pretty much anything in between over the years and especially recently.
But when it came to the stunning news of Colbert being cancelled, Cowherd had some words not just for his CBS show, but for late night television in general. The Fox Sports host feels that it is too geared towards “coastal critics” and wanting to please The New Yorker.
Between the three major late night network hosts (Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon), Colbert is certainly the most political and the most progressive. Of course, that is all the more reason to be troubled by his late night show getting the boot at CBS. The optics and general movement of the media to bend the knee to Donald Trump has been a disturbing trend in recent months after ascending to the presidency for a second time.
CBS in particular has seen their parent company Paramount open Pandora’s Box by agreeing to a settlement with Trump over a lawsuit that stemmed from a Kamala Harris interview. That led to several resignations at CBS News. It all comes amidst the backdrop of a SkyDance acquisition of Paramount with the Trump administration playing the role of kingmaker and a Trump ally in Larry Ellison set to benefit. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to connect the dots between the acquisition and CBS giving the boot to Stephen Colbert as one of Donald Trump’s most notable critics.
But aside from that, is Colin Cowherd with his original point? It’s the same dynamic we saw with Shane Gillis hosting the ESPYS and his rise to one of comedy’s biggest stars. It should come as no shock that New York Magazine was one of the critical voices of his ESPYS monologue. But there was a huge portion of the country that probably loved it and loves Gillis.
Cowherd’s critique may be a bit generalized. Jimmy Fallon isn’t leading a progressive political movement anytime soon. But with the rightward shift taking place in sports, media and elsewhere, perhaps it’s up to everyone in media to take a look in the mirror and find a way to better connect with a wider audience.