Things are not going so well with left-wing comedian talk show hosts over the water. Last week came the news of the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert by CBS/Paramount. And Ellen de Generes, whose daytime chat show was chopped back in 2022, revealed this weekend that she’s moved permanently to the Cotswolds, where she is currently farming chickens (she was keeping sheep too, but they kept running away from her).

Both of these developments are being attributed to the reelection of one Donald J. Trump as President. Colbert’s firing by Paramount came very soon after his outburst on his show about the company settling a lawsuit by Trump, who had accused them of favourable editing of a campaign interview with Kamala Harris. Many have linked Colbert’s exasperated blast at his bosses to them firing him – which occurred less than 48 hours later.

There is a place for lectures and spluttering rants, but it is a small place

Paramount/CBS, for their part, issued a statement saying that the axing ‘is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount’. Though it also states that the decision was a ‘financial one’, taken ‘against a challenging backdrop in late night’. Which looks very much like the ‘performance’ of the show was indeed their main consideration.

All linear TV is in its death throes, yes, and the late-night talk show is no exception. Hilariously, this week we kept hearing that Colbert has the highest-rated of these shows; which,........

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