July 19, 2025 • 26 mins
ICYMI: Hour Two of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – An in-depth look at the fallout surrounding CBS’ decision to eliminate ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’…PLUS – Mark Rahner has a review on the debut of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 3’ in The Rahner Report - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app & YouTube @MrMoKelly
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
KFI. Mister Kelly. Here Later with mo Kelly.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and of course
across social media with our video simulcast. Let me pick
up where I left off last night regarding Stephen Colbert,
and if we can have an honest conversation, if we
can have a knowledgeable conversation about TV, how TV and
how it works, then I think we can get to
(00:46):
the base of all this. The question going around was
what happened to Stephen Colbert and the Late Show, the
non renewal, the public canceling of the show. Was that
connected more to the merger and politics or was it
connected to the natural decay of late night television. That's
(01:07):
what people are debating. For me, this is an easy one.
I always say, get the easy ones right. Let's say
you've never worked in entertainment. Let's say you've never worked
in TV. It is really unusual for a major studio
to publicly kneecap a number one TV show ten months
(01:28):
in advance of it going off the air. You just
don't see that for a number of reasons. But it's
exceptionally unusual to do so knowing it will negatively impact
advertisers for that show. In other words, if a show
is going to be canceled in ten months, well, not
only are you precluding the likelihood of people advertising on
(01:48):
the show, Let's say you have advertisers which are loyal
to the show. There will be a pushback and they
will pull their money. Happens all the time you cancel
the show. Well, there's no need for me to keep advertising.
I don't like that you're canceling the show. I'll take
my money elsewhere. And there's something else because of what
(02:10):
happened yesterday you will have in the next I don't
like making predictions, but this is time.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'm going to make a prediction. I am going to.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Predict in the next couple weeks, could be days, could
be months, you will have a slew of stories talking
about Paramount Plus losing all sit all sorts of subscribers.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You're going to.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
No company would normally do that, And also talk about, well,
the reasons why we're canceling the show is only financial.
You're not going to do things which are financially harmful
to your own company. In the name of just saying
we're not going to continue with the show because of
(02:55):
financial reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Do you honestly believe that they would have announced the
end of this show ten months in advance if there
were no merger going on? Do you really think that
they would have announced the end of the show ten
months in advance? And also do it simultaneous to meeting
with the FCC for this eight billion dollar merger.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Do you think one happens without the other.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Do you actually believe that they would do something and
say something that only harms the brand publicly?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
There's no monetary incentive to recap your own show, to
hurt your own brand, to lose subscribers. The question of
whether it's political, yeah, it's political, but there's also money
connected to the politics.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
The politics is paramount.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Did not want anything or anyone to get in the
way of this eight billion dollar merger with Skydance. And
if they did anything which was going to piss off
the president, the president most likely would have intervened or
made it more.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Difficult for this merger to go through.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
The eight billion dollars means a lot of powerful people
get a lot of money, and if anyone were to
get in the way of that, or that lawsuit were
to get in the way of that, then you have
the sec preventing the merger, arguing probably antitrust or something
like that. A lot of people don't get paid. So
(04:39):
that's where the politics comes in. If you think the
merger and the politics which are connected on the periphery
of that merger didn't impact the non renewal ten month
out announcement of Stephen Colbert and any of the late
night franchise, you just don't understand how TV works. It
(05:04):
just doesn't work that way. You don't kill one of
the Golden Goose ten months in advance.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Were his ratings and late night.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Ratings overall consistent with maybe five years ago. Absolutely not,
And I talk about that as the natural decay of
late night television. It is a dying platform as far
as how people consume TV. But it's still one of
the biggest money makers, is still one of the highest
rated shows for the network. Why would you ever harm
(05:36):
the show unnecessarily? You coulda lose advertisers now ten months out,
You gonna lose subscribers now ten months out. Why you
could have avoided both. You could have waited until Q one,
twenty twenty six and then made that announcement and it
would not have had the same type of a bad
(05:58):
impact on your brand and on subscribers that you're gonna
get Right now, You're gonna get nothing but bad news
and bad coverage for the next ten months.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
At least.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You're gonna lose subscribers, you're gonna lose valuation. While you're
complaining about how this is just a purely financial decision,
when you made your own financial situation worse. Maybe the
money that you're making with the merger is well, clearly
it is. It's more important to you than what's going
(06:28):
to happen to the CBS brand. Is there a number
of networks under the banner of paramount. But I promise
you here's my prediction, and I want to get mark
Roners thoughs on this before we go to break.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We're gonna come back and talk about this on other side.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
But I promise you there will be negative stories about
loss of subscribers, about the diminution of the CBS brand,
when all of this could have been avoided by saying nothing.
You didn't have to go to Stephen Colbert and say, hey,
we're not going to renew you in ten months. I've
worked in this business. You don't have to make that
decision ten months out. Most people they are starting the
(07:06):
negotiations now, and as they get to the end of
the contract they will make some sort of decision. But
to make a decision now says you already made that decision,
and the only thing which would have made that decision
for you.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Is a lawsuit.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Mark Ronner, Well, the thing to consider here is there's
a reason why when somebody gets fired, they're usually escorted
by security with the box of their stuff out the
front door, and they're not given ten months. Do you
really think Colbert is gonna last on their ten months
with the just a merciless mockery that's gonna ensue.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I just was talking about that with CARTNEYI we were
talking about they were making comparisons to other people who
lost their shows recently.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't know if.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
They're going to make it ten months, but I do
know that Stephen Colbert has now been unleashed.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I mean, he's got nothing to lose. Now, what are
you gonna do? Take away his birthday next?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Possibly it may be.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
One of those things where all of a sudden, he's
just not on the air anymore.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, that could be, but he was already he had
more nerve than your average TV personality. You do this
to him and give him ten months to run with it.
I'm not missing a night from now on. I guarantee that.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Maybe in a short term that might be the upside
for the ratings, But the ratings only mean something if
you're selling ad space, and I'm not sure they're going
to be able to keep those advertisers because there's no
long term upside. I know advertisers are loyal to shows
and properties. If you canceled the show, the advertisers say, well,
(08:39):
I'm not going to financially support you because you're not
supporting the show.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I see that point, But I also think people love Colbert.
He seems he projects as a really decent guy who's
gotten screwed for no good reason.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yes, but I don't know if advertisers think that Colbert
is best served by continuing to advertise on their network.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I can't answer that. We're going to find out, but
it's doing nothing but spreading further.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
We'll have more on this in just a moment Later
with mo Kelly, I AM six forty Live Everywhere the
i heeartradio app.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Forty Later with mo Kelly, let's continue our conversation about
Stephen Colbert and what it is and what it isn't
for me.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's very simple. It's very very simple.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
The lawsuit which was filed by the Trump administration regarding
the edited interview of Kamala Harris during the campaign, the
defamation lawsuit was a nothing. It was going to be
easily one. There was no legal grounds for it to
stand on. That's what just about every legal expert has said.
(09:51):
But if anything, if there was any question, you still
fight it. You don't donate sixteen million dollars to the
presidential Library of Donald Trump. That makes it political. They
would have not made that same decision to not fight
it if not for an eight billion dollar merger in
(10:12):
which the Trump administration would be able to block.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That is, those are inextricably linked. You can't separate it.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
That separated out, So that makes it political to what degree.
We can argue, but we shouldn't argue about whether there
is a political component to this, there's a political variable
what happens to Stephen Colbert. He will be fine. To
Mark Ronner's point, it will be interesting to see how
he handles the coming days, weeks, or months, depending on
(10:43):
how long he remains on the air. Publicly, it was
said that they were going to not renew the show
as of May twenty twenty six. It doesn't mean that
the show will remain on air as it is until
May twenty twenty six. We know that Stephen Colbert didn't
give any FS prior to last night. I can only
(11:06):
imagine that he'll give negative FS between now in May
twenty twenty six. How does that translate to what CBS
slash Paramount will allow on their air. I don't know,
but I just know working in entertainment, it is not
uncommon and Carneesia reminded me of this. It's not uncommon
(11:27):
to say, when you're going to unexpectedly my word fire, someone,
cancel someone's show, take the show away from them. You
usually don't allow them on the air afterward. I don't
know how Colbert's contract is written. There may be some
contingencies for moments like these in his contract. We don't know.
(11:50):
In his contract, whether there's a non compete clause. Let
me explain that to you. A non compete clause means
even though they may not renew his contract, there may
be a clause in there which prevents him going to
a rival network. That happened with Shep what was his
name at Fox News? Oh yeh, damn it. I can't
(12:14):
think of the name either. Yeah, I'm just getting old
Sheppard Smith. There you go at Fox News. When he
left Fox News, he couldn't immediately go to where he
ended up, CNBC because it was a noncompete clause, so
he had to wait like two years. But that had
to do with cable news, and in this case with
Stephen Colbert, it could only have to do with broadcasts television.
(12:39):
It doesn't mean that he may not show up on
cable or he could not do a video podcast. There
are number of things which might be available to him
depending on how his contract is written, which we don't know.
But to Mark's point, it'll be interesting to see how
aggressive Colbert is in skewering his is for the time being,
(13:01):
his bosses right now.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He had no problem doing it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
In previous days, but now the situation has changed now
he really since according to Colbert, he was informed Wednesday
night of this change, according to Colbert, and if we
take him at his word, he has not really responded
to it. He made the announcement yesterday, but he hasn't
responded as far as how he really feels about it.
(13:29):
He said how he felt about the quote unquote big
fat bribe and how Paramount Plus responded to the lawsuit,
but he hasn't really talked about the cancelation of his show,
the non renewal of his show, and that's going to
come out, and we don't know if Paramount Plus is
excuse me, Paramount is going to allow that, or how
(13:50):
they'll respond to it after he does it.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So that's something to look at.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But I don't think there's a real debate as to
whether there is a political component to this. I don't
think there's a real debate to be had about his
position in late night television. He's number one for his
time slot. Yes, there has been a decay of late
night television. Yes, it is not probably going to be
(14:17):
around in twenty years. Late night television as we know it,
viewing habits have changed. People don't watch late night television,
especially on broadcast television like we have. But that is
not the impetus for this. And the more people try
to tell that lie, it's like, well, people are watching
late night television.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, his.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Ratings weren't what they were two years ago. That's bs okay.
That is a red herring. That is a distraction from
the real reason he is not being taken off air
ten months from now because of declining ratings. His ratings
are better than Kimmel. His ratings are better than Fallon
(15:01):
Kimmel and Fallon put together. So it's not his ratings
which are an issue. It's not about the finances of
that show. It's about what is happening in the background
and what people are trying to preserve. And Colbert is
not necessarily getting in the way, but he's a thorn
(15:21):
in the side of the president with his commentary. And
obviously Paramount did not want to have Stephen Colbert in
any way mess up this eight billion dollar merger. I
just say that as someone who's dabbled in radio and
TV for the past thirty years.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But what the hell do I know? Mark Keviny thoughts
before we go to break.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I was just gonna add the President Trump has posted
that he loves that Colbert got fired.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That further makes it political.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
You know, he's involving himself, that makes it political. I
don't know what people are really debating. I don't know
what to say. It is what it is. You know,
we know that there was no love loss between them.
But we can't ride through this moment and act like
the merger had nothing to do with it. The President's
(16:10):
influence on the FCC and whether they could kill the
merger had nothing to do with it. I think we're
denying the obvious here. I can't wait to tune in
on Monday, and I think a lot of people will,
and they will take their cues from Colbert as far
as whether he's going to play it cool or maybe
(16:31):
just play it cool for a short amount of time
and then drop the bomb.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But he's going to get in his final word. He's
going to have his say. Oh, he's a master of
this stuff. I cannot wait to see what he has
to say. He's really going to go to town with this
coming up next as the Runner Report.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh yeah, KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly. On demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Mark talks about pontificates about pop culture. Ron and Report
with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Dam if I am six forty. It's time for the
Runner Report with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Tonight we're going to talk about Star Trek's Strange New
world Season three. It's a little weird how the original
Star Trek cranked out seventy eight hour long episodes in
just three years, but that's how TV was back then.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds just started its third short,
ten episode season, and there was a nearly two year
gap between the second and third season. I forgot where
(17:42):
it left off. Lots of fans have been waiting for
the first two episodes of season three. There on the
Paramount Plus app right now. Here is a little bit
of the trailer.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Someone said, space is dark and cold. Our job is
to bring light, bring warms, bring life to wherever we go.
Is this a hit it situation?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That's whatever kind of adventure we want it to be.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
This crew is a team the finest Starfleet has to offer.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Indeed, it's possible they don't know about us.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
They know about us. There is evil in this universe.
The sure there is good. The choices you make in
that share, they are yours to make and yours to
live with.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I think that's plenty. You get the idea. Star Trek's
Strange New World Worlds is my favorite of all the spinoffs,
and to be completely honest, I never liked any of
the others, all right. I like the animated series because
it had a lot of the same talent from the
old main show and was way too weird and intellectual
for kids in the seventies and also for adults now.
In fact, let's have some of the music from that
(18:54):
to add drama and excitement to what I'm saying. Let's
try this. Oh yeah, now we're cooking. Let's turn this
down a little. That makes every single thing better. Now,
even if you like Strange New Worlds, you got to
look the other way on plenty of stuff. It's set
before the time of the original, but the ship and
everything else look far more advanced. Your mileage may vary
(19:17):
on the young Kirk in the show. There's never gonna
be another William Shatner, so you run into this problem
of having an actor doing an impression or not like
they more or less do with young Spock and young
Scottie Spock.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Let's just move on.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
They change some well known stuff from the old show,
in this case the Gorn, which are the aliens from
the last season Cliffhanger and the first episode of the
season three. Remember the original series episode Arena where Kirk
fights a Gorn. It's essentially a space lizard man Okay,
looks like a guy in a rubber suit who moves
like one of the slee stacks from Land to the Lost.
(19:51):
Ever since I moved to La, I've been planning to
go to Vasquez Rocks where they filmed that and get
a photo like Ii'm Kirk after he rolls the Boulder
down on the Gorn, which doesn't do anything to the Gorn.
The new ones are far more reptilian, less humanoid, move faster,
crawl on walls and stuff. You might as well call
them something different, but we're just gonna keep moving. In
(20:11):
the first new episode of this third season, some crew
members are trapped on the Gorn mothership being digested in
pod things, which they get out of by poking their
hands through the pod things. Captain Pike and the Enterprise
are attacked by a lot of little Gorn fighter ships
and Pike's girlfriends infected with a Gorn parasite baby thing
and might die from it. There's a ton of future
(20:33):
tech mumbo jumbo dialogue, but it's a fun episode plenty attention.
The second episode, also strip Minds, I mean, is inspired
by another original series episode, Remember what Are Little Girls
Made Of? That's the one where Nurse Chapel meets her
old ex mentor with benefits, Roger Korby on a planet
with Kirk and Krby's really turned into a number two.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That's the old one.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
In the new Strange New World's version, they go back
to Chapel's initial time with Corby, and it's play's a
romantic comedy with a younger, hotter dude lam Corby and
a heartbroken spot Reese Darby, the New England comic actor,
is a fun guest star, and the episode also riffs
on another great old original episode called The Squire of
Got Those And I'm not going to spoil it any
further than that. What I'm saying is they mashed up
(21:17):
two old episodes together and did some fan fiction. It's
all watchable, but even the best episodes of Strange New
Worlds mainly remind me of the better Original ones. At
least these guys know those shows well enough to riff
on them. I guess Strange New World's a great look
and show, and I don't understand why it's not on
the actual network instead of just the Paramount Plus streaming app.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Wait which app? Paramount Plus? Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Okay continue, But it's a Paramount show, And as we've
been discussing, they aren't exactly known at this point for
their stellar decision making. You may be aware if you've
been listening, they paid a sixteen million dollar settlement in
a nuisance suit from President Trump over an edited sixty
minutes interview of Kamala Harris, which is nowhere near as
egregious as the kind of stuff that routinely appears on
(22:00):
Fox News and elsewhere. Paramount wants a merger to go
through with another big company called sky Dance, and they
need the FCC's approval for that. You may also recall
that sixty Minutes, also a Paramount CBS show, has had
issues related to editorial independence, and an executive producer left
there recently, and Paramount canceled the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
(22:22):
Their statement claims it was purely a financial decision, but
no one believes that for a second. Colbert is by
far number one in the ratings in his time slot.
He also recently called that sixteen million dollar settlement a
bribe on the air, and has mocked Trump relentlessly over
the years. You don't have to be a media consultant
to know that if you want to make a bribe
(22:42):
accusation go away, that ain't the way to do it,
but it is an outstanding way to make it spread
everywhere really fast. It's like the streisand effect, if Barbara
streisand We're trying to get a huge business deal approved
by silencing a popular satirist. What I'm saying is that CBS,
which runs The Late Show and Star Trek Strange New World,
is a mess. And I started this digression wondering why
(23:05):
Strange New World is only on the Paramount plus app.
What I'm thinking is CBS might cease to exist before
long because Paramount's so poorly run, and maybe they at
least have the foresight to build up the streaming app first,
abandon ship, get to the escape pods and all that.
I'm just telling you as a journalist that it doesn't
pass the smell test. It looks exactly like Colbert is
being canceled for political reasons and not the reasons Paramount gave.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I don't like being lied to, no matter who's doing
the line. And there's another thing. We've always had some
versions of the court jester in our culture who could
mock kings and speak truth to power without fearing his
head getting separated from his body. Colbert is won in
a long line of those. You might not watch or
agree with him, or think he's funny. I'm just telling
you he's part of that tradition. And I bet there's
(23:49):
some you've liked. I'd ask what you think of Greg
Guttfield if he was canceled to a peace President Biden,
But I'm talking about comedians. The point is it seems
like alignsman.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You like that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
The latest on this situation is that the Writer's Guild
of America has called for Paramount to be investigated for
bribery by the New York State Attorney General following that
cancelation of Colbert, Variety reports. The Labor Union says it
has significant concerns the move may have been intended to
bribe President Trump into sanctioning Paramount's pending acquisition by sky Dance.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
There you have it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Senators, including Schiff and Warren are demanding answers now about
the situation too, and that's the genius outfit in charge
of Star Trek. As I was saying, I like Anson
Mount as Captain Pike, which was a role originated by
Jeffrey Hunter. Pike's a different sort of captain who represents
a different kind of masculinity for a different time than
(24:42):
the mid sixties. He doesn't have all the answers. He
gets them from his team. He cooks for his officers.
He's got a steady girlfriend that he gets emotional about,
as opposed to Kirk's space jigglow Stick. It's refreshing and
I wish the episodes focused more on Pike, but it's
a different kind of show. It's also too informal. I
don't like everyone calling each other by the first names
instead of lieutenant or ansign. Erica doesn't seem right for
(25:06):
essentially a naval adventure.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
In space, but we're gonna keep moving.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
God to admit, I'm also not crazy about Spock being
such a needy, emotional weakling. I genuinely think we're still
just beginning to appreciate what Leonard Nimoy brought to that role,
and he wasn't even the first choice. Imagine if Martin
Landau from Mission Impossible had accepted it when they offered
it to him first.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Illogical. Here's the bottom line.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I'm gonna keep watching Strange New Worlds until I have
to bail like I did with Star Trek Discovery after
maybe less than two seasons, because what I didn't like
about that started to outweigh what I liked. Strange New
Worlds has been renewed through season five and the reportedly
in production on season four now, which means that after
five seasons, probably still with some space between them, will
(25:49):
still have maybe fifty episodes compared to the original seventy
eight and three. This is the only example of American
productivity I can think of that's actually gone down. I'm
telling you the United Federation of Planets could learn a
thing or two from Mokay, crank out more shows. That's
your runa report.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Look, Martin Landau may have not landed the Spock role,
but he did get Space nineteen ninety nine, so it
turned out okay.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
I'm not a huge fan of that show, but I
absolutely love the old Mission Impossibles that he was in.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Fair Enough, fair Enough, it's Later with Moe Kelly and
there is an aroma of pizza in the studio.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I did not condone that.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
I don't know what you're talking about and you can't
see anything on my camera.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
You're listening to Later with Mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
KFI. Mister Kelly. Here Later with mo Kelly.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and of course
across social media with our video simulcast. Let me pick
up where I left off last night regarding Stephen Colbert,
and if we can have an honest conversation, if we
can have a knowledgeable conversation about TV, how TV and
how it works, then I think we can get to
(00:46):
the base of all this. The question going around was
what happened to Stephen Colbert and the Late Show, the
non renewal, the public canceling of the show. Was that
connected more to the merger and politics or was it
connected to the natural decay of late night television. That's
(01:07):
what people are debating. For me, this is an easy one.
I always say, get the easy ones right. Let's say
you've never worked in entertainment. Let's say you've never worked
in TV. It is really unusual for a major studio
to publicly kneecap a number one TV show ten months
(01:28):
in advance of it going off the air. You just
don't see that for a number of reasons. But it's
exceptionally unusual to do so knowing it will negatively impact
advertisers for that show. In other words, if a show
is going to be canceled in ten months, well, not
only are you precluding the likelihood of people advertising on
(01:48):
the show, Let's say you have advertisers which are loyal
to the show. There will be a pushback and they
will pull their money. Happens all the time you cancel
the show. Well, there's no need for me to keep advertising.
I don't like that you're canceling the show. I'll take
my money elsewhere. And there's something else because of what
(02:10):
happened yesterday you will have in the next I don't
like making predictions, but this is time.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I'm going to make a prediction. I am going to.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Predict in the next couple weeks, could be days, could
be months, you will have a slew of stories talking
about Paramount Plus losing all sit all sorts of subscribers.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You're going to.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
No company would normally do that, And also talk about, well,
the reasons why we're canceling the show is only financial.
You're not going to do things which are financially harmful
to your own company. In the name of just saying
we're not going to continue with the show because of
(02:55):
financial reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Do you honestly believe that they would have announced the
end of this show ten months in advance if there
were no merger going on? Do you really think that
they would have announced the end of the show ten
months in advance? And also do it simultaneous to meeting
with the FCC for this eight billion dollar merger.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Do you think one happens without the other.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Do you actually believe that they would do something and
say something that only harms the brand publicly?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
There's no monetary incentive to recap your own show, to
hurt your own brand, to lose subscribers. The question of
whether it's political, yeah, it's political, but there's also money
connected to the politics.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
The politics is paramount.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Did not want anything or anyone to get in the
way of this eight billion dollar merger with Skydance. And
if they did anything which was going to piss off
the president, the president most likely would have intervened or
made it more.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Difficult for this merger to go through.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
The eight billion dollars means a lot of powerful people
get a lot of money, and if anyone were to
get in the way of that, or that lawsuit were
to get in the way of that, then you have
the sec preventing the merger, arguing probably antitrust or something
like that. A lot of people don't get paid. So
(04:39):
that's where the politics comes in. If you think the
merger and the politics which are connected on the periphery
of that merger didn't impact the non renewal ten month
out announcement of Stephen Colbert and any of the late
night franchise, you just don't understand how TV works. It
(05:04):
just doesn't work that way. You don't kill one of
the Golden Goose ten months in advance.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Were his ratings and late night.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Ratings overall consistent with maybe five years ago. Absolutely not,
And I talk about that as the natural decay of
late night television. It is a dying platform as far
as how people consume TV. But it's still one of
the biggest money makers, is still one of the highest
rated shows for the network. Why would you ever harm
(05:36):
the show unnecessarily? You coulda lose advertisers now ten months out,
You gonna lose subscribers now ten months out. Why you
could have avoided both. You could have waited until Q one,
twenty twenty six and then made that announcement and it
would not have had the same type of a bad
(05:58):
impact on your brand and on subscribers that you're gonna
get Right now, You're gonna get nothing but bad news
and bad coverage for the next ten months.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
At least.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You're gonna lose subscribers, you're gonna lose valuation. While you're
complaining about how this is just a purely financial decision,
when you made your own financial situation worse. Maybe the
money that you're making with the merger is well, clearly
it is. It's more important to you than what's going
(06:28):
to happen to the CBS brand. Is there a number
of networks under the banner of paramount. But I promise
you here's my prediction, and I want to get mark
Roners thoughs on this before we go to break.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We're gonna come back and talk about this on other side.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
But I promise you there will be negative stories about
loss of subscribers, about the diminution of the CBS brand,
when all of this could have been avoided by saying nothing.
You didn't have to go to Stephen Colbert and say, hey,
we're not going to renew you in ten months. I've
worked in this business. You don't have to make that
decision ten months out. Most people they are starting the
(07:06):
negotiations now, and as they get to the end of
the contract they will make some sort of decision. But
to make a decision now says you already made that decision,
and the only thing which would have made that decision
for you.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Is a lawsuit.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Mark Ronner, Well, the thing to consider here is there's
a reason why when somebody gets fired, they're usually escorted
by security with the box of their stuff out the
front door, and they're not given ten months. Do you
really think Colbert is gonna last on their ten months
with the just a merciless mockery that's gonna ensue.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
I just was talking about that with CARTNEYI we were
talking about they were making comparisons to other people who
lost their shows recently.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't know if.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
They're going to make it ten months, but I do
know that Stephen Colbert has now been unleashed.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I mean, he's got nothing to lose. Now, what are
you gonna do? Take away his birthday next?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Come on?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Possibly it may be.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
One of those things where all of a sudden, he's
just not on the air anymore.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, that could be, but he was already he had
more nerve than your average TV personality. You do this
to him and give him ten months to run with it.
I'm not missing a night from now on. I guarantee that.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Maybe in a short term that might be the upside
for the ratings, But the ratings only mean something if
you're selling ad space, and I'm not sure they're going
to be able to keep those advertisers because there's no
long term upside. I know advertisers are loyal to shows
and properties. If you canceled the show, the advertisers say, well,
(08:39):
I'm not going to financially support you because you're not
supporting the show.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
I see that point, But I also think people love Colbert.
He seems he projects as a really decent guy who's
gotten screwed for no good reason.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yes, but I don't know if advertisers think that Colbert
is best served by continuing to advertise on their network.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I can't answer that. We're going to find out, but
it's doing nothing but spreading further.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
We'll have more on this in just a moment Later
with mo Kelly, I AM six forty Live Everywhere the
i heeartradio app.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Forty Later with mo Kelly, let's continue our conversation about
Stephen Colbert and what it is and what it isn't
for me.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's very simple. It's very very simple.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
The lawsuit which was filed by the Trump administration regarding
the edited interview of Kamala Harris during the campaign, the
defamation lawsuit was a nothing. It was going to be
easily one. There was no legal grounds for it to
stand on. That's what just about every legal expert has said.
(09:51):
But if anything, if there was any question, you still
fight it. You don't donate sixteen million dollars to the
presidential Library of Donald Trump. That makes it political. They
would have not made that same decision to not fight
it if not for an eight billion dollar merger in
(10:12):
which the Trump administration would be able to block.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That is, those are inextricably linked. You can't separate it.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
That separated out, So that makes it political to what degree.
We can argue, but we shouldn't argue about whether there
is a political component to this, there's a political variable
what happens to Stephen Colbert. He will be fine. To
Mark Ronner's point, it will be interesting to see how
he handles the coming days, weeks, or months, depending on
(10:43):
how long he remains on the air. Publicly, it was
said that they were going to not renew the show
as of May twenty twenty six. It doesn't mean that
the show will remain on air as it is until
May twenty twenty six. We know that Stephen Colbert didn't
give any FS prior to last night. I can only
(11:06):
imagine that he'll give negative FS between now in May
twenty twenty six. How does that translate to what CBS
slash Paramount will allow on their air. I don't know,
but I just know working in entertainment, it is not
uncommon and Carneesia reminded me of this. It's not uncommon
(11:27):
to say, when you're going to unexpectedly my word fire, someone,
cancel someone's show, take the show away from them. You
usually don't allow them on the air afterward. I don't
know how Colbert's contract is written. There may be some
contingencies for moments like these in his contract. We don't know.
(11:50):
In his contract, whether there's a non compete clause. Let
me explain that to you. A non compete clause means
even though they may not renew his contract, there may
be a clause in there which prevents him going to
a rival network. That happened with Shep what was his
name at Fox News? Oh yeh, damn it. I can't
(12:14):
think of the name either. Yeah, I'm just getting old
Sheppard Smith. There you go at Fox News. When he
left Fox News, he couldn't immediately go to where he
ended up, CNBC because it was a noncompete clause, so
he had to wait like two years. But that had
to do with cable news, and in this case with
Stephen Colbert, it could only have to do with broadcasts television.
(12:39):
It doesn't mean that he may not show up on
cable or he could not do a video podcast. There
are number of things which might be available to him
depending on how his contract is written, which we don't know.
But to Mark's point, it'll be interesting to see how
aggressive Colbert is in skewering his is for the time being,
(13:01):
his bosses right now.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He had no problem doing it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
In previous days, but now the situation has changed now
he really since according to Colbert, he was informed Wednesday
night of this change, according to Colbert, and if we
take him at his word, he has not really responded
to it. He made the announcement yesterday, but he hasn't
responded as far as how he really feels about it.
(13:29):
He said how he felt about the quote unquote big
fat bribe and how Paramount Plus responded to the lawsuit,
but he hasn't really talked about the cancelation of his show,
the non renewal of his show, and that's going to
come out, and we don't know if Paramount Plus is
excuse me, Paramount is going to allow that, or how
(13:50):
they'll respond to it after he does it.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So that's something to look at.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But I don't think there's a real debate as to
whether there is a political component to this. I don't
think there's a real debate to be had about his
position in late night television. He's number one for his
time slot. Yes, there has been a decay of late
night television. Yes, it is not probably going to be
(14:17):
around in twenty years. Late night television as we know it,
viewing habits have changed. People don't watch late night television,
especially on broadcast television like we have. But that is
not the impetus for this. And the more people try
to tell that lie, it's like, well, people are watching
late night television.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, his.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Ratings weren't what they were two years ago. That's bs okay.
That is a red herring. That is a distraction from
the real reason he is not being taken off air
ten months from now because of declining ratings. His ratings
are better than Kimmel. His ratings are better than Fallon
(15:01):
Kimmel and Fallon put together. So it's not his ratings
which are an issue. It's not about the finances of
that show. It's about what is happening in the background
and what people are trying to preserve. And Colbert is
not necessarily getting in the way, but he's a thorn
(15:21):
in the side of the president with his commentary. And
obviously Paramount did not want to have Stephen Colbert in
any way mess up this eight billion dollar merger. I
just say that as someone who's dabbled in radio and
TV for the past thirty years.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
But what the hell do I know? Mark Keviny thoughts
before we go to break.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I was just gonna add the President Trump has posted
that he loves that Colbert got fired.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That further makes it political.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
You know, he's involving himself, that makes it political. I
don't know what people are really debating. I don't know
what to say. It is what it is. You know,
we know that there was no love loss between them.
But we can't ride through this moment and act like
the merger had nothing to do with it. The President's
(16:10):
influence on the FCC and whether they could kill the
merger had nothing to do with it. I think we're
denying the obvious here. I can't wait to tune in
on Monday, and I think a lot of people will,
and they will take their cues from Colbert as far
as whether he's going to play it cool or maybe
(16:31):
just play it cool for a short amount of time
and then drop the bomb.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But he's going to get in his final word. He's
going to have his say. Oh, he's a master of
this stuff. I cannot wait to see what he has
to say. He's really going to go to town with this
coming up next as the Runner Report.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh yeah, KFI AM six forty, We're live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You're listening to later with Moe Kelly. On demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Mark talks about pontificates about pop culture. Ron and Report
with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Dam if I am six forty. It's time for the
Runner Report with Mark Ronner.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Tonight we're going to talk about Star Trek's Strange New
world Season three. It's a little weird how the original
Star Trek cranked out seventy eight hour long episodes in
just three years, but that's how TV was back then.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds just started its third short,
ten episode season, and there was a nearly two year
gap between the second and third season. I forgot where
(17:42):
it left off. Lots of fans have been waiting for
the first two episodes of season three. There on the
Paramount Plus app right now. Here is a little bit
of the trailer.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
Someone said, space is dark and cold. Our job is
to bring light, bring warms, bring life to wherever we go.
Is this a hit it situation?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That's whatever kind of adventure we want it to be.
Speaker 6 (18:11):
This crew is a team the finest Starfleet has to offer.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Indeed, it's possible they don't know about us.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
They know about us. There is evil in this universe.
The sure there is good. The choices you make in
that share, they are yours to make and yours to
live with.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I think that's plenty. You get the idea. Star Trek's
Strange New World Worlds is my favorite of all the spinoffs,
and to be completely honest, I never liked any of
the others, all right. I like the animated series because
it had a lot of the same talent from the
old main show and was way too weird and intellectual
for kids in the seventies and also for adults now.
In fact, let's have some of the music from that
(18:54):
to add drama and excitement to what I'm saying. Let's
try this. Oh yeah, now we're cooking. Let's turn this
down a little. That makes every single thing better. Now,
even if you like Strange New Worlds, you got to
look the other way on plenty of stuff. It's set
before the time of the original, but the ship and
everything else look far more advanced. Your mileage may vary
(19:17):
on the young Kirk in the show. There's never gonna
be another William Shatner, so you run into this problem
of having an actor doing an impression or not like
they more or less do with young Spock and young
Scottie Spock.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Let's just move on.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
They change some well known stuff from the old show,
in this case the Gorn, which are the aliens from
the last season Cliffhanger and the first episode of the
season three. Remember the original series episode Arena where Kirk
fights a Gorn. It's essentially a space lizard man Okay,
looks like a guy in a rubber suit who moves
like one of the slee stacks from Land to the Lost.
(19:51):
Ever since I moved to La, I've been planning to
go to Vasquez Rocks where they filmed that and get
a photo like Ii'm Kirk after he rolls the Boulder
down on the Gorn, which doesn't do anything to the Gorn.
The new ones are far more reptilian, less humanoid, move faster,
crawl on walls and stuff. You might as well call
them something different, but we're just gonna keep moving. In
(20:11):
the first new episode of this third season, some crew
members are trapped on the Gorn mothership being digested in
pod things, which they get out of by poking their
hands through the pod things. Captain Pike and the Enterprise
are attacked by a lot of little Gorn fighter ships
and Pike's girlfriends infected with a Gorn parasite baby thing
and might die from it. There's a ton of future
(20:33):
tech mumbo jumbo dialogue, but it's a fun episode plenty attention.
The second episode, also strip Minds, I mean, is inspired
by another original series episode, Remember what Are Little Girls
Made Of? That's the one where Nurse Chapel meets her
old ex mentor with benefits, Roger Korby on a planet
with Kirk and Krby's really turned into a number two.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That's the old one.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
In the new Strange New World's version, they go back
to Chapel's initial time with Corby, and it's play's a
romantic comedy with a younger, hotter dude lam Corby and
a heartbroken spot Reese Darby, the New England comic actor,
is a fun guest star, and the episode also riffs
on another great old original episode called The Squire of
Got Those And I'm not going to spoil it any
further than that. What I'm saying is they mashed up
(21:17):
two old episodes together and did some fan fiction. It's
all watchable, but even the best episodes of Strange New
Worlds mainly remind me of the better Original ones. At
least these guys know those shows well enough to riff
on them. I guess Strange New World's a great look
and show, and I don't understand why it's not on
the actual network instead of just the Paramount Plus streaming app.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Wait which app? Paramount Plus? Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Okay continue, But it's a Paramount show, And as we've
been discussing, they aren't exactly known at this point for
their stellar decision making. You may be aware if you've
been listening, they paid a sixteen million dollar settlement in
a nuisance suit from President Trump over an edited sixty
minutes interview of Kamala Harris, which is nowhere near as
egregious as the kind of stuff that routinely appears on
(22:00):
Fox News and elsewhere. Paramount wants a merger to go
through with another big company called sky Dance, and they
need the FCC's approval for that. You may also recall
that sixty Minutes, also a Paramount CBS show, has had
issues related to editorial independence, and an executive producer left
there recently, and Paramount canceled the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
(22:22):
Their statement claims it was purely a financial decision, but
no one believes that for a second. Colbert is by
far number one in the ratings in his time slot.
He also recently called that sixteen million dollar settlement a
bribe on the air, and has mocked Trump relentlessly over
the years. You don't have to be a media consultant
to know that if you want to make a bribe
(22:42):
accusation go away, that ain't the way to do it,
but it is an outstanding way to make it spread
everywhere really fast. It's like the streisand effect, if Barbara
streisand We're trying to get a huge business deal approved
by silencing a popular satirist. What I'm saying is that CBS,
which runs The Late Show and Star Trek Strange New World,
is a mess. And I started this digression wondering why
(23:05):
Strange New World is only on the Paramount plus app.
What I'm thinking is CBS might cease to exist before
long because Paramount's so poorly run, and maybe they at
least have the foresight to build up the streaming app first,
abandon ship, get to the escape pods and all that.
I'm just telling you as a journalist that it doesn't
pass the smell test. It looks exactly like Colbert is
being canceled for political reasons and not the reasons Paramount gave.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
That's it.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I don't like being lied to, no matter who's doing
the line. And there's another thing. We've always had some
versions of the court jester in our culture who could
mock kings and speak truth to power without fearing his
head getting separated from his body. Colbert is won in
a long line of those. You might not watch or
agree with him, or think he's funny. I'm just telling
you he's part of that tradition. And I bet there's
(23:49):
some you've liked. I'd ask what you think of Greg
Guttfield if he was canceled to a peace President Biden,
But I'm talking about comedians. The point is it seems
like alignsman.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
You like that.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
The latest on this situation is that the Writer's Guild
of America has called for Paramount to be investigated for
bribery by the New York State Attorney General following that
cancelation of Colbert, Variety reports. The Labor Union says it
has significant concerns the move may have been intended to
bribe President Trump into sanctioning Paramount's pending acquisition by sky Dance.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
There you have it.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Senators, including Schiff and Warren are demanding answers now about
the situation too, and that's the genius outfit in charge
of Star Trek. As I was saying, I like Anson
Mount as Captain Pike, which was a role originated by
Jeffrey Hunter. Pike's a different sort of captain who represents
a different kind of masculinity for a different time than
(24:42):
the mid sixties. He doesn't have all the answers. He
gets them from his team. He cooks for his officers.
He's got a steady girlfriend that he gets emotional about,
as opposed to Kirk's space jigglow Stick. It's refreshing and
I wish the episodes focused more on Pike, but it's
a different kind of show. It's also too informal. I
don't like everyone calling each other by the first names
instead of lieutenant or ansign. Erica doesn't seem right for
(25:06):
essentially a naval adventure.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
In space, but we're gonna keep moving.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
God to admit, I'm also not crazy about Spock being
such a needy, emotional weakling. I genuinely think we're still
just beginning to appreciate what Leonard Nimoy brought to that role,
and he wasn't even the first choice. Imagine if Martin
Landau from Mission Impossible had accepted it when they offered
it to him first.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Illogical. Here's the bottom line.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I'm gonna keep watching Strange New Worlds until I have
to bail like I did with Star Trek Discovery after
maybe less than two seasons, because what I didn't like
about that started to outweigh what I liked. Strange New
Worlds has been renewed through season five and the reportedly
in production on season four now, which means that after
five seasons, probably still with some space between them, will
(25:49):
still have maybe fifty episodes compared to the original seventy
eight and three. This is the only example of American
productivity I can think of that's actually gone down. I'm
telling you the United Federation of Planets could learn a
thing or two from Mokay, crank out more shows. That's
your runa report.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Look, Martin Landau may have not landed the Spock role,
but he did get Space nineteen ninety nine, so it
turned out okay.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
I'm not a huge fan of that show, but I
absolutely love the old Mission Impossibles that he was in.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Fair Enough, fair Enough, it's Later with Moe Kelly and
there is an aroma of pizza in the studio.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I did not condone that.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
I don't know what you're talking about and you can't
see anything on my camera.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty
Later, with Mo'Kelly News
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