As far as I know, this is what’s on CBS:

— 10 sitcoms all based around some guy named Sheldon.

— A bunch of shows purporting to be about the FBI.

— A bunch of shows purporting to be about military investigators.

Right now, the only thing I ever watch that airs on CBS is “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” – and I only watch the clips I see on social media.

But as we all know, that’s going to end. CBS announced that it is ending the entire “Late Show” franchise. The announcement says the economics of late night television led to the decision.

And we all know that’s crap. CBS ended the show because its parent company, Paramount, is being sold to Skydance, the pet project of the Ellison family. That $8 billion deal has to be approved by a Justice Department that insists on fealty to Donald Trump.

Fealty is not the way to describe Colbert’s attitude toward Trump. It’s more like middle-fingerty.

But let’s be fair. CBS has long stopped being the “Tiffany Network” of our youth. Is there any comedy on the network of the caliber of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “All in the Family” or “M*A*S*H”? Is there any drama on CBS that reminds you of “Mission: Impossible”? Where are the “Young People’s Concerts” and “See It Now” and “The 20th Century” and “CBS Reports”?

Does CBS News carry the same cachet of the Murrow-Cronkite-Rather era? CBS paid $16 million to settle a suit from Trump that alleged “60 Minutes” doctored an interview with Kamala Harris – would the old CBS have caved like a sandcastle in a tidal wave?

It makes me wonder: Has the idea of television networks become obsolete?

In my younger days, networks were gathering places. News – local and global. Sports. Music. Ed Sullivan tried to entertain an entire nation in one hour. It might have been schlocky at times, but it was an effort to bring the nation together around a small screen.

Now they only seem interested in maximizing the cash generated for the least amount of effort. You used to look forward to the fall preview issue of TV Guide and the new shows on the networks. Is there still a TV Guide, much less a fall season?

Maybe it’s time to say goodbye to eyes and peacocks and whatever you call the ABC logo,

Maybe networks can be formed by confederations of artists: performers, writers, tradespeople, producers. First, teaming to create interesting new programming. 

Second, forming a link among the shows that give them a shared branding. Arista or Canelot or some other fantastic name that link news and programming of the highest quality at little or no cost to viewers.

It’s complicated, but it doesn’t seem impossible. It’s what over-the-air TV was, in a way, when people my age were born. 

Right now, with cable and streaming, we have more choices than ever before. But it never seems as though there’s anything GOOD on. Instead of another news panel on what goofy thing Trump said today, how about innovative investigative reports on health crises around the world, or medical breakthroughs, or re-examining historic events.

A TV confederation would need to find a way to make it economically feasible for the people working in it. That, not the technology, seems to me the biggest stumbling block. 

What’s going to keep legacy networks in business is the understandable argument that camerapeople and make up artists and actors need to feed their families. If you can make it so that so that people make decent livings without the infrastructure of networks and affiliates, it would make American media more immune to the kind of ridiculous pressure it faces from the Trump gang.

I don’t have a lot of answers. I’m not sure how this would work. But I’m sick of capitulation and mediocrity. 

Colbert’s cancellation isn’t the end of this – I would not bet money that he will still be on the air until his contract runs out next May. I think the Ellisons will unceremoniously end “The Late Show,” Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” and anything resembling independent reporting at CBS News. 

It will be the watery pablum that CBS puts our every night.

It’s time to revolutionize American media. To think differently.