How things work in Shiny-land

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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For those who missed it, Paramount management is trying to sell the company to Sky Dance. The government has a say, in whether the merger can happen, or not.

It would be reasonable to assume the Paramount honchos have a “change of control” clause in their contracts that pays them millions, or tens of millions, if they are successful in selling the company.

Paramount owns CBS.

Someone didn’t like an interview with an opponent that was done by “60 Minutes”, a CBS program. A couple weeks ago, CBS paid out $16M to assuage hurt feelings.

Three days ago, a person working for CBS criticized the payout: “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended,” he said. “And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16m would help.”

Yesterday, that person, who has been the target of criticism by the person who received the $16M, for some time, was fired by CBS, effective next May.

This all gives me flashbacks to the Smothers Brothers show being cancelled by CBS, because TPTB didn’t like some of the things the Brothers said. I watched the Smothers Brothers show. Even before the cancellation, the censorship of the show was obvious in the rough edits.

Steve…will “himself” receive a Golden Share of Sky Dance?

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The Worst Business Deal in History
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laff break: never threaten a corporate merger.

Steve

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Yup, CBS is losing money big-time on The Late Show. The economics of late-night shows have been going downhill for years. Apparently, streaming has something to do with it. Legacy media not doing so well macro-economically…

If that sounds unthinkable for the #1 rated show at 11:35pm, consider this: as Matt Belloni reports today in Puck, back in 2018, all of late-night television combined generated $438 million in advertising revenue. By 2023, that number had been cut in half, and it has continued to fall.

Given that The Late Show—with its handsomely paid host and a staff of roughly 200 employees—reportedly costs CBS $100 million per year to produce, that $40 million figure becomes easier to understand.

DB2

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Or, maybe the shows just aren’t as good as they used to be? When the “news” reported on the cancellation, they noted that, in the 70s, Carson, by himself, pulled 15M viewers per night. That is roughly double what all three late night shows pull, combined, now.

When Carson retired, I could have continued to stay up late, as RS store hours were 10am to 9pm. When I moved on to OD, I worked 11am to 8pm I just didn’t care for Leno. When Fallon took over, I looked in for a couple weeks, went “bah”, and stopped watching.

Carson had a certain chemistry. Recall, Jack Parr had run the show for a few years, before Carson took over, and never had Carson’s success. CBS hired Merv Griffin for a competing show. Merv was crushed. ABC hired Dick Cavett. who has the same Nebraska roots as Carson. Cavett was crushed.

In the short time I attempted to watch Fallon, I noted it was much more of an infomertial that the show was when Carson ran it. There were plenty of people on, in the 70s, to flog a movie or TV show, but they were mixed in with people like Gore Vidal, or William Buckley, or Calvin Trillin, who simply were interesting. I started noticing Fallon would have a different person, from the cast of a particular movie, on, several nights in a row. One time, he was even advertising that he was going to have different people touting the same movie, every night, for a week.

Is it that Carson was uniquely gifted? Or have the suits been so obsessed with pocketing advertising revenue, that they didn’t bother to make the shows entertaining, and lost their audience?

I went looking on YT for a clip Carson used to show on the anniversary show, and found a 25 minute clip from that show…I just spent more time watching Carson, than I have spent watching any of the current late night shows, in the last five years, combined.

Steve

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I would think Carson’s dominance had a lot to do with there only being a limited number of things to watch … certainly not true today.

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I would think Carson’s dominance had a lot to do with there only being a limited number of things to watch … certainly not true today.

Found an interesting article, late night TV ratings from 1972, when CBS first replaced Griffin with movies, and not particularly good movies at that. The ratings for the movies matched or beat the ratings for Carson.

Apparently, following Griffin’s cancellation, CBS continued with movies and reruns, (I vaguely remember “The Night Stalker” series being run as part of CBS late programming in the 80s) until “The Pat Sajak Show” started in 89, and died a quick death.

All that being said, the payout to “himself”, in the midst of a merger, hinging on “himself” approving, quickly followed by criticism of the payout, and the cancellation, does not prove cause and effect, but it’s hard to say it is purely a coincidence, especially having lived through the purge of the Smothers Brothers.

Steve

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That too. But legacy media is in a long downhill slide, sort of like land line phones…

DB2

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Which came first, loss of audience, or loss of quality? Right now, the only first run things I watch are “All Creatures Great And Small”, and TOH. Add in reruns of “Hogan’s Heroes” and the occasional “Columbo”. 10-20 years ago, I watched the “Hawaii Five-O” and “Magnum PI” reboots, as well as “Burn Notice” and “Stargate SG-1”, but they are all gone now.

Steve

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Johnny Carson was king of late night. And nobody will ever come close. In fact, I suspect that this genre of late night shows will end pretty soon. Nowadays when I am up late, like right now, I never EVER watch anything on live TV. Instead I crank up netflix, or lately sometimes hoopla, to watch a show at my leisure. Most recently, I’ve been watching episodes of “Death in Paradise” and find it very entertaining, I’m in middle of season 5 right now.

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That show is carried on PBS stations currently. You don’t need a pay service to see it.

Now, if you were watching “Foyle’s War”, it might be worth it. I have the DVD box set. That being said, I have confirmed, unfortunately, that DVDs rot after about 20 years. I have lost several discs from “Babylon 5” and “Stargate SG-1”, as well as one from “Band of Brothers”. So, now, I am in the process of selling off the box sets that are close to that age.

Heading back to the Colbert cancellation. Consider that the “financial” issue the network is crying about is not the profitability of the show, but the multi-million change of control payout the Paramount honchos will pocket by selling the company.

oh…lookie what was in “Variety” last year:

That guarantees Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins will receive severance payments equivalent to two times their annual base salary plus twice their annual target bonus amount, among other benefits, in the event they’re terminated in connection with a sale or merger of Paramount Global (or within two years of such a transaction).

And what happened to the previous CEO of Paramount?

Cheeks, McCarthy and Robbins took over leadership of Paramount Global in the newly created “Office of the CEO” after Redstone [booted former CEO Bob Bakish on April 29, reportedly over Bakish’s clash with Redstone over pursuing the deal with Skydance.

What was the previous CEO’s payout to go away?

Are we really sure the firing has anything to do with the show’s “financials”? Or are the relevant “financials” nothing but a “JC” money grab, and they didn’t want Colbert, the 60 Minutes interview, journalistic integrity, free speech, or anything else to obstruct their getting the deal done, to make themselves richer?

Steve

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Steve, how many tens of millions of dollars would you be willing to lose each year to keep the program on the air?

DB2

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I am simply observing that the personal gain of the honchos may be driving the sale, not conventional business metrics.

Steve

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Maybe. However, we’ve discussed the inroads made by streaming, and late night shows have already cut back to four nights a week from five, so I think the model has been reaching its “sell by” date. Don’t be surprised if the other late-nighters are gone in a few years.

DB2

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