Another NATPE has come and gone, perhaps the least newsworthy one I can recall, and I’ve been around for a while. Nary a single significant project for fall 2026 was announced despite the reality that there’s an awful lot of real estate that’s now in flux. We’ve been reminded of this on a nightly basis as Stephen Colbert’s death march soldiers on. Recently we learned of his show’s official cancellation date (Thursday, May 21st) and the availability of more and more of his show’s props, scripts and furniture via a noble house-cleaning effort that will ultimately raise millions to feed families far less well off that the ones whose breadwinners have been fortunate enough to have been employed by Colbert.
What we did pick up this week was the news that still more families of other talk shows might actually be interested in just how well Colbert’s efforts go, because they too are getting pink slips. The latest were ones that sent the BLAVITY NEWS website into a flurry of nonstop wails and laments this week, highlighted by this take from one Monique Jones:
Daytime TV is getting a shakeup with Sherri getting the axe after four seasons.
According to Variety, the show hosted by Sherri Shepherd wasn’t cancelled for any negative reason, it would seem. Ira Bernstein and Mort Marcus, the co-presidents of production company Debmar-Mercury, said in a statement, “This decision is driven by the evolving daytime television landscape and does not reflect on the strength of the show, its production–which has found strong creative momentum this season–or the incredibly talented Sherri Shepherd. We believe in this show and in Sherri and intend to explore alternatives for it on other platforms.”
And BLAST’s Danielle Jennings was equally somber about this somewhat less surprising news that was confirmed as a handful of buyers smartly escaped a horrid winter for a few days in Miami with not much to do but convene and react to alerts on their phones:
On Monday, February 2, Clarkson confirmed that she was stepping away from “The Kelly Clarkson Show” after seven seasons in a statement. “There have been so many amazing moments and shows over these seven seasons. I am forever grateful and honored to have worked alongside the greatest band and crew you could hope for, all the talent and inspiring people who have shared their time and lives with us, all the fans who have supported our show, and to NBC,” Clarkson’s statement read in part. “Because of all of that, this was not an easy decision, but this season will be my last hosting ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show.’ Stepping away from the daily schedule will allow me to prioritize my kids, which feels necessary and right for this next chapter of our lives,” she continued.
NBC Universal didn’t seem to feel the need to weigh in since they’ve all but telegraphed this as Clarkson’s personal issues became more and more disruptive over the course of that run. Forcing a cross-country move in the midst of this didn’t help the show’s pro forma, either. But according to at least one esteemed media expert, she apparently was at least given more respect than was Shepherd. Witness what THE GRIO’s Brandon Caldwell found newsworthy on Tuesday:
In comedian Loni Love’s eyes, Shepherd deserved better than finding out her show was canceled via trade publications. Love took to Twitter on Tuesday (Feb. 3) to voice her displeasure with how everything went down, pointing out that fellow daytime host Kelly Clarkson got the agency to at least inform people that her show was ending after its current season, which received a much softer landing. She added…“Seeing “cancelled” stamped all over your picture is depressing, especially when the show was having good ratings.
God Love you, Loni, but please keep your day job. Apparently you somehow stumbled onto a nearly year-old spiel that EUR WEB’s Ny MaGee regurgitated from the spin machine that expert hucksters like Marcus and Bernstein employ when when this season’s renewal was belatedly announced:
The renewal follows a standout February sweeps period, where “Sherri” ranked as the No. 2-rated syndicated talk show in Nielsen’s metered markets. The show saw an impressive 33% increase from November 2024 in the key daytime demographic of women 25-54. Nationally, “Sherri” ranked No. 3 among syndicated talk shows, surging 17% compared to November and hitting a season high the week of February 17.
I would merely ask you, Ms. Love, if you had read the fine print and actually seen the actual numbers. First off, being number two in a subset of markets is all relative, especially when number one (LIVE! WITH KELLY AND MARK) was substantially higher. And whenever I see percentages that simplistic my kneejerk reaction would be to conclude we’re talking about gains from a rounded 0.3 to a 0.4 in demo and a rounded 0.6 to 0.7 in households. Hitting a season high when the weather is coldest is one of the oldest and most simplistic syndication tricks in the book. Not that it’s as easy to find those numbers as it was years ago, as it seems no one is quoting verbatim information in a world where streamers can consistently get away with such obfuscation. But trust me, as somehow who’s authored quite a lot of that bullsh-t myself, I would defy anyone actually involved to prove me wrong.
Maybe these pundits still think we’re in the kind of competitive landscape that was covered so brilliantly in the recent three-part ABC NEWS documentary DIRTY TALK, which one can still easily digest on Hulu. DAYTIME CONFIDENTIAL’s Carly Silver practically gushed over it in the preview she wrote last month:
Expect appearances by hosts Maury Povich, Sally Jessy Raphael, Montel Williams, John Henson (who helmed Talk Soup, which often featured sensational clips from talk shows), and Leeza Gibbons, as well as Ricki Lake creator Garth Ancier, Jerry Springer and Sally executive producer and creator Burt Dubrow, and Geraldo executive producer Marty Berman.
For someone who was directly involved in that world during that era both as buyer and seller, it was a worthy trip down memory lane to a time when it was as competitive and news-worthy as anything else. What we also saw was a lot more grey hair and wrinkles and a reminder that even the more desperate and lower-rated shows that regularly used TALK SOUP as a promotional gimmick–anyone remember THE RICHARD BEY SHOW or, heaven forbid, Canadian import SHIRLEY?–were all higher rated than SHERRI or THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW are now. Even Love’s more recent DEI ripoff of THE VIEW, THE REAL, broke a 1.0 rating even in decline. If Sally Jessy Raphael’s inexplicable age marks weren’t already a clue, it all can be explained this simpllistically: That was then and this is now.
And lest we remind you David Letterman used to deliver more than three times the audience of Colbert’s. Spoiler alert: the cost of producing television has only gone up in the last decade.
This is why when the conversation digresses into finger-pointing to ideological differences and thinly disguised racism as forces behind cancellations I get my dander up. If you were running a business, or even your own household, would you continue to invest and support losing more and more money each year for the sake of some “greater good”? And please spare me the excuse that corporations aren’t people. They are first and foremost beholder to shareholders who are, and they are at least as financially sensibe as any of you on any given day. That’s how they got to the point of even being able to become shareholders in the first place.
And as for all of those grandiose plans for “exploring other platforms”, I would like to assume by this point the lamenting parties have seen the definitive piece that THE NEW YORK TIMES’ John Koblin authored just before Christmas. I’ve repurposed it before and I will yet again because it should be required reading for anyone who wants to weigh in on what’s really going on in daytime–including you, Ms. Love. But do allow me to highlight one particular nugget which you and others crying in your kambucha and Takis should ponder:
At 11 a.m., for instance, YouTube had an average audience of 6.3 million viewers in October, Nielsen said. Netflix’s audience is less than half of that (2.8 million). Amazon has about a million viewers at that hour, and some streaming services, like HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock, draw fewer than 600,000.
Notice what doesn’t even make that cut? Syndicated talk shows like THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW and SHERRI.
And as Koblin further reminded, what a significant amount of those YouTubers are choosing could easily be classified as de facto personality-driven talk shows:
Roughly 75 percent of all podcast listening time happens between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Edison, a research firm. YouTube said viewers watched 700 million hours of video podcasts on living room devices in October, a 75 percent increase from last year. And YouTube is also the No. 1 platform for podcast listening, with a healthy lead over Spotify and Apple, Edison said.
Is it any wonder that stations are so ambivalent to even wanting to show up to conventions like NATPE in the pious hope that they’ll even be offered something? Look at how they’re treating the daypart already. SHERRI’s current lead-in in Los Angeles is something called GOOD DAY LA PLUS and her second run on KCOP (a.k.a. FOX 11 PLUS–noticing a pattern?) was recently replaced by a replay of the show’s 7-9 AM flagship block. And both are delivering equivalent ratings to hers. But I’m sure Ms. Love and her Instagram followers already knew THAT.
So I do look forward to the announcement that all of that “exploration” will inevitably lead Shepherd and, should they bother, Debmar-Mercury to a video podcast which their expert salesmanship could conceivably drop into those vacant time slots. Unless, of course, one of the other millions of those currently in existence beat her to the punch. And trust me, kids, none of y’all are even gonna come close to the viewing levels you seem to think justify continued renewals and support as your whines and bitching seem to convey.
Maybe take all of that pent-up energy and perhaps start your own charity cause to help feed the families of the production staffs of the shows besides Colbert that will also be history by this summer? They’re all gonna be in the same boat, and it’s for essentially the same reason. And zero to do with any thin-skinned fascist, either.
If you’re truly hell-bent on looking to blame someone for any of this, start by looking in the mirror. And then pick up your phones and check how many hours a day it tells you you’re online. Given what are actual facts, those might be pretty good places to start.
Food for thought, so to speak.
Until next time…