Butt seriously....
The shock of this and the proximity to Trump's recent 60 Minutes settlement have everyone rightly looking in his direction, and there is no question that Trump has a hand in this even if it might not be explicit or direct. However, the fact that a highly rated and fairly popular iteration of a 70 year old concept is losing money on a major network suggests that the problem isn't with the program or the formula, its with the audience as a whole. Late night talk shows, and variety shows in general, have become obsolete in an age where all forms of topical comedy have been digested into YouTube, Threads, and TikTok videos. It's not so much that people have shortened their attention spans as much as online video platforms have replaced aspects of how users collect and digest their entertainment. Colbert would know doubt thrive on an online comedy platform like Funny or Die or College Humor where his content can be built around short comedic takes.