Why late-night is failing: Rob Finnerty

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Finally last night, Stephen Colbert started the process of going away forever. And I've never seen anything like this. CBS announced they were getting rid of Stephen last year, but he got to keep his job for a year. And then Stephen's friend Jimmy, who works at a different network altogether, went off the air last night to honor Stephen.

[00:00:23]We will be off tomorrow night out of respect for our colleague and friend Stephen Colbert and the writers, producers and crew of the late show. I hope the people who did the pushing feel ashamed of themselves tonight, although I know they probably won't. But that being said, I think it is most important to congratulate Stephen. On behalf of everyone at our show, we want to say to everyone at your show, it has been a pleasure to work alongside you.

[00:00:47]It has been a pleasure to work alongside you. Jimmy, you work at ABC, Stephen worked at CBS. Those are two different networks. Again, you work at ABC in California, Stephen worked at CBS in New York. You do not work alongside each other, just like I do not work alongside Jesse Waters. He's down the street, but he's not down the hall. We are competitors.

[00:01:09]And then it hit me, this is why late night is failing. These people don't get that they are competing against each other and that this is a business that they don't own and the goal of that business is to win in the ratings. And if Stephen Colbert was still doing that, he would still have a job. It's that simple. And then I saw this brand new YouGov poll, and when people were asked who they think is the best late night comedian, the winner was not Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert. The winner in a blowout was none of the above. I'm serious. At 38% none of the above won because late night TV is terrible and we saw that again last night.

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