Is this the death of the late night US chat show?

Certainly not, as anyone with YouTube or Rumble knows. There have never been more such talk shows than there are now. But cable TV's efforts can't compete.

Here's what I don't get. If this genuinely had nothing to do with the Paramount settlement or the merger, then why did it come immediately after that? Wouldn't a corporation that cares so much about optics want to at least wait a bit to give the impression these are unrelated, if they could? Is there a plausibly explanation here?

Colbert will end up bigger than before.

Paramount probably can’t afford him anyway.

The paradigm used to be that “late at night” means kids aren’t likely to watch. So, you had a bit of room to get away with things. Now, that doesn’t apply in the same way when things are on demand. So there’s still a desire for the types of content, but it’s not dictated by the broadcast timeslots.

I doubt it's the death of the late night show.

People are known to watch late night show highlights at a different time, on demand.

Nice fit for digital.

He will end up on existing cable networks, or the cable networks of the future, whether it's a Netflix et. al, or Youtube.

Good riddance. Just a bunch of CIA psyops anyway.