Viral staff photo reveals just how bloated Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' operation really was

With "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" coming to an unceremonious end earlier this week, tributes continue to pour in on social media memorializing Colbert and his decade-plus run on CBS.

Everyone from former Vice President Kamala Harris to Bruce Springsteen offered up kind words and even guest musical appearances, respectively, to show how much the late-night talk show meant both to them, and entertainment in general.

Hell, even the Democrats themselves posted on their X account about how thankful they are to have witnessed such a true comedic genius like Colbert ply his craft on national television.

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It's bizarre that a show that was seemingly so popular came to such an abrupt end, but if you really wanted a glimpse into one of the reasons why "The Late Show" wasn't working out for CBS (other than the fact that large swaths of the country didn't want to watch a DNC mouthpiece masquerading as a comedian), you will find it in a staff photo that is now going viral on social media.

Longtime CNN correspondent (hey, look, another Democrat), Brian Stelter, has been going through his own stages of grief over the loss of "The Late Show," posting everything from heartfelt thank-yous to Colbert and co. to shaking his fist at that evil orange man, Donald Trump.

And it's in one of those tribute pictures that we see just how bloated the staff for "The Late Show" really was.

You're telling me this corpulent crew was losing CBS $40 million a year? Yeah, I can actually believe that.

Seriously, this is the team of people it took to write such masterful comedic salvos as "Skibidi Biden?"

It takes fewer people to launch a rocket into outer space than it did for Colbert and his team to fart out a couple of lame jokes about Trump being a Putin shill.

This should really put into perspective how this whole operation was doomed to failure.

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If shows with a quarter of the budget can get better ratings, then it doesn't matter how many DNC figureheads come to Colbert's defense.

Money talks and BS walks.

If Colbert is as popular as the Democrats tell us he is, then he should have no problem landing on his feet with a new show of his own.

I'm sure we will all be lining up around the block to check it out, too.