The world of late night TV was hit with a major shakeup when CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The move not only felt like it held a mirror to the current financial situation at Paramount in the midst of the Skydance merger, but also a mirror to the state of late night at large. Whether the cancellation was purely financial as CBS has claimed or politically motivated as has been rumored over the last week, other late night hosts have taken stock of the current climate for late night talk shows Now, Seth Meyers is discussing his own show’s potential future.
Meyers, who has hosted Late Night with Seth Meyers for 11 years, recently opened up about his own fears surrounding the shifting late night landscape, especially as he remains the only host that has a talk show within the 12:00 a.m. ET hour. He admitted that his show’s longevity fears have shifted since he first started hosting his show in 2014, and he’s recognized he has less power over his own fate than he once did. He told Dax Shepard on Armchair Expert:
I shifted from fearing that I wouldn’t be good enough. Now, my fear is weirdly more outside of my control, which is we might just, at some point, the ecosystem might not support it.
Colbert’s show was losing $40 million dollars a year, which still isn’t a reflection of the show’s quality, considering Colbert led in ratings and was just nominated for an Emmy for the previous season.
Saturday Night Live writer and actor explained just why that would be the case:
I would worry about myself mental health wise. But I’ve put a lot of thought into diversifying my skillset. I would’ve been certainly financially fine just doing the show for 11 years, but I think there’s something to trying to build a stand up career and trying different things.[…] there is no one entity that can take everything away at once.
Outside of his late night show, Meyers has two podcasts. He has one with his brother called Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers where they talk to other celebrities about trips they took with their families growing up. He also does a podcast with The Lonely Island titled The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, on which the group recaps digital shorts produced during their time at SNL.
Additionally, Meyers’ recent stand-up special, Dad Man Walking, received a lot of buzz after becoming available with an HBO Max subscription. He also has an ongoing residency with fellow late night host John Oliver at the Beacon Theater in New York City. So, overall, even if this CBS cancellation is truly the marker of the end of a late-night era, Meyers will be fine in the long run, at least personally.
Still, this late-night programming shift brings into question where the medium at large will go moving forward. Will it shift primarily to podcasting, or will it turn into something more longform like David Letterman’s Netflix show? Or maybe it will become increasingly more gimmicky, like Hot Ones or Chicken Shop Date. The industry is clearly changing, but how that evolution will unfold in the long run has still yet to be seen.
Check out Seth Meyers on Late Night, which airs on weeknights on NBC at 12:30 pm ET amid the 2025 TV schedule. Fans of the show can also check out previously aired episodes now with a Peacock subscription.