Even before he’s officially moved into the major-network late-night talk market, Stephen Colbert is already borrowing part of future rival Jimmy Fallon’s act: a big fat heaping of corporate welfare.
Recently, CBS announced that when David Letterman retires and funnyman Colbert succeeds him as host of “The Late Show,” the program will stay in New York.
For a price, that is.
That price turns out to be similar to the Jimmy Fallon tax credit the state paid to get “The Tonight Show” to film here.
In that deal, NBC got more than $20 million in tax credits, along with another several million for studio construction.
Under this new deal, CBS will get $11 million from taxpayers over the next five years — plus another $5 million in grants to renovate the fabled Ed Sullivan Theatre.
The absurdity is that neither show was seriously planning to be anywhere other than New York. “Tonight Show” producer Lorne Michaels said as much publicly.
But the NBC deal became a signal to others to get in on the taxpayer bonanza. And it appears CBS was taking no chances.
Over the last six months, CBS and its affiliates contributed $45,000 to Gov. Cuomo’s re-election campaign.
The saddest thing about these deals is that the state has embraced the position of wooing celebrities and “glamour” industries at the expense of the Mom and Pop small businesses and ordinary workers out.