It came out that Colbert was not CBS' first choice to succeed Letterman. Not even its second. CBS is kind of a strange culture. I am probably not remembering this correctly. Please correct my mistakes. But Katie Couric was hired with great fanfare to replace Dan Rather. Her overall ratings went down compared to Rather, but the ratings for NBC and ABC dropped as well. Couric actually improved the rating in the demo. What she didn't do was move CBS into first place i the evening news. Maybe for $15 million a year she was supposed to. Howard Stern, who hates Les Moonves, laid over specific examples of how CBS was humiliating Couric a year or two into the contract. A lot of what they did -- I'm guessing Moonves' flunkies if Moonves didn't do it -- seemed to be aimed at getting Couric to give up the contract. Moonves apparently thought luring Couric away from The Today Show would hurt Today Show ratings. They weren't hurt. And CBS Evening News ratings only slightly increased. Still, there were some major corporate broadsides at Couric. I wouldn't be surprised to see similar irrational thinking turn up at CBS. CBS is also pushing harder into the digital market than ABC or CBS. I wonder if they want The Late Show to be a spearpoint in this effort.
On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 9:48 AM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 12:25 PM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Couple this with what appears to be a similar situation at 12:35 - >> cheaper host, ratings landscape comparable to before the switch - and CBS >> is certainly doing much better at late night than it used to. Arguably >> Corden's online cache is gravy. >> David >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* PGage <[email protected]> >> *To:* "[email protected]" <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Sunday, September 4, 2016 12:19 PM >> *Subject:* Re: [TV orNotTV] Wilmore sits with Colbert next week >> >> http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2016/09/02/late-night-ratin >> gs-august-22-26-2016-jimmy-kimmel-live-scores-low/ >> >> In case the formatting from the chart below from tvbythenumbers is not >> preserved, I will briefly summarize: >> >> The relative rankings of the three network broadcast 11:35 shows is >> preserved from the Dave/Leno era . From my memory, the magnitude of the >> differences is about the same as well - CBS about 1M behind NBC and .5M >> ahead of ABC (year long average). The demo numbers show Kimmel to be a bit >> closer to Colbert. >> >> I still don't understand the hand wringing about Colbert's numbers, >> unless there really was an expectation at Black Rock that Colbert would >> improve over Dave. Most likely there is some disappointment that Colbert >> has not significantly improved over Dave's ratings in the demo. >> >> But, Colbert makes "only" $4.6M/year; the Time article linked below says >> Dave was making $30M/year, but my memory and other sources suggest Dave >> took a pay cut in the last few years and was making more like $20M. Fallon >> makes $11-$12M, Kimmel $10M. >> >> To me it seems like the Colbert Late Show is a huge finanancial success >> for CBS, which is making out like a bandit: For less than a quarter of what >> they paid Dave they are getting basically the same ratings; for less than >> half of what NBC pays Fallon they are getting two thirds of the ratings; >> for less than half what ABC pays Kimmel they are getting better ratings. >> >> http://time.com/money/4025147/stephen-colbert-late-show-salary/ >> >> *Show* *Net* *Adults 18-49, 8/22- 8/26* *Viewers (millions), 8/22- 8/26* >> *Adults >> 18-49 season to date * >> *11:35 p.m.* >> >> >> >> >> The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon NBC 0.82/5 3.18 0.99/5 >> Late Show with Stephen Colbert ABC 0.46/2 2.14 0.61/3 >> Jimmy Kimmel Live CBS 0.42/2 1.97 0.53/3 >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> The $30M that was being quoted for Dave was a license fee to Worldwide > Pants to produce the show. Dave did not pocket that sum (minus taxes, > agent, manager, etc). So he paid the writers, producers, band, etc from it. > I am sure his take home was substantial, but there is no way of knowing > what it is. And there were cutbacks over the years as CBS lowered the > payout during contract renewal negotiations. > > Even as Moonves and CBS told Dave that he could have a show as long as he > wanted, it was clear that Dave's announcement did not come as a surprise to > CBS and they clearly game planned the succession. So the decision to go > after Colbert was not a panicked or desperate decision. They signed him for > 5 years and I'm sure that Colbert's side put in terms that would be > punitive to CBS if they wanted to terminate it. > > Plus, CBS prided itself on avoiding the mess that NBC had to go through in > replacing Leno. To remove Colbert after a year and have to go through a > whole rebuild of a new show, while believing that there is only upside in > the ratings, is pretty much unthinkable. > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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