The end of The Late Show, an American institution since 1993, leaves those still surviving within the format wondering what the future looks like. Stephen Colbert's tenure is officially over, and his David Letterman-founded late-night franchise with it. Though Colbert was the group's best interviewer, strongest comedy bona fides, and highest-rated show, it's hard to argue that network TV is in need of the late-night chatshows that used to be such a major status symbol and cash cow.
Today the landscape is becoming both more and less competitive; fewer actual late-night shows, their numbers decreasing because a lot of people can watch any number of things at whatever time works best for them. NBC's Saturday Night Live has managed to remain relevant by providing a comedy focus that doesn't pull punches in quite the same way as a talkshow forced to rely so heavily on current events; a sketch-variety format and expanded running time; and the event status of actually broadcasting live.
But it's sort of the exception that proves the rule: as untouchable as it seems, it can't be considered fully exempt from the overall warning issued on Colbert's finale: 'At some point, this may come for all our shows,' the Strike Force Five mused about the sucking CG void symbolizing his cancellation.
Are we losing the recipes by letting these network standbys drop out of sight? On one hand, there have been plenty of stretches of TV history where not every major network carried a talkshow with the fairly rigid format. On the other, it's been the shows and hosts more prone to format-breaking that have been earlier to go, such as Craig Ferguson's more freewheeling version of the Late Late Show or Conan O'Brien's quirkier, funnier iteration of The Tonight Show.
