Stephen Colbert's Late Show has some suggestions for Netflix's ad-supported 'lite' option

Netflix's surprise announcement that it lost 200,000 subscribers last quarter sent its share price plummeting 35 percent on Wednesday. Even though the company still reported $1.6 billion in quarterly profit, its first subscriber loss in a decade prompted the streaming giant to contemplate a crackdown on the estimated 100 million subscribers who share their password and/or create a cheaper subscription supported by advertising. Stephen Colbert's Late Show found that last idea intriguing, and it opened Wednesday's show with a quick look at how a "Netflix Lite" might work
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 jackbooted cartoons about L.A.'s anti-ICE protests
Cartoons Artists take on National Guard deployment, the failure of due process, and more
-
Some of the best music and singing holidays in 2025
The Week Recommends From singing lessons in the Peak District to two-week courses at Chetham's Piano Summer School
-
Crossword: June 14, 2025
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Here comes the end of 'Squid Game'! Plus more great TV shows to see this June.
the week recommends The next great sports comedy, a young Marvel heroine and the conclusion of 'Squid Game'
-
The top period dramas to stream now
The Week Recommends Heaving bosoms and billowing shirts are standard fare in these historical TV classics
-
'Forever': Judy Blume's controversial novel gets a modern adaptation
The Explainer The Netflix series gives the 1975 novel all the trappings of modern teen life
-
The Four Seasons: 'moving and funny' show stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey
The Week Recommends Netflix series follows three affluent mid-50s couples on a mini-break and the drama that ensues
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
'Severance' and the best tech dystopia shows
The Week Recommends If the Apple TV+ hit increased your appetite for bleak futurism, you have additional options
-
Movies to watch in April, including 'A Minecraft Movie' and 'The Legend of Ochi'
The Week Recommends An all-timer video game gets a wacky adaption, Ryan Coogler makes a vampire flick and a new fantasy puts practical effects back in the spotlight