"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will end Thursday, giving the networks a new chance to rethink late night television.
With Late Show with Stephen Colbert going off the air Thursday night, the future of late-night television is in question. While the circumstances are not ideal—the timing of CBS’s cancellation was undeniably fishy—the end result is. It is long past time for the networks to rethink late-night television.
The rise of online videos, social media and direct avenues to interact with fans has made traditional late-night TV redundant.
The tantalizing tidbits celebrities once reserved for interviews are now shared on their Instagrams long before they repackage them for late-night giggles. Stars pay more attention to their personal brands than ever before, which makes sincere, viral moments on talk shows less likely than ever. And the number of people watching anything after the late local news has dropped dramatically in just the past decade.
Here are five ways late-night TV needs to change in the wake of Stephen Colbert’s cancellation.
