On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert found out that CBS was canceling The Late Show. Then the network simply announced the news in a press release the next day, stating that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Despite Colbert’s 33 Emmy nominations throughout his time on The Late Show—including a Peabody Award in 2020—the most watched late-night show will come to an end in May 2026.
“I share your feelings,” Colbert said on Thursday night’s episode when the crowd booed the news. “It isn’t just the end of our show but the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
“I’ve had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day in front of this camera for the last ten years and, let me tell you, it is a fantastic job,” Colbert continued. “I wish somebody else was getting it.”
CBS’s axing of The Late Show is incredibly strange timing, to say the least. Just two days before, Colbert criticised the network on air for settling its 60 Minutes lawsuit with Donald Trump. The President sued CBS and its parent company, Paramount, alleging that 60 Minutes deceptively edited its interview with then vice president Kamala Harris to interfere in the election. Although CBS initially stated that the lawsuit was “without merit,” the network eventually caved and settled. Colbert called the network’s USD16 million payout a “big fat bribe” on his show on Monday.
Two days later, Colbert found out that his show was cancelled. CBS’s press release stated that the decision was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Still, the timing is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. Senator Adam B Schiff, a Democrat from California, was a guest on Colbert’s show Thursday night. After the taping, he posted on social media, “If Paramount and CBS ended The Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know.”
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren echoed Schiff’s appeal. In a statement, she wrote, “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just three days after Colbert called out CBS owner Paramount for its USD16 million settlement with Trump—a deal that looks like bribery. America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Colbert also received support from his fellow comedians and late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Ben Stiller, and Anderson Cooper.
Though it’s true that late-night TV is not earning the same viewership that it did in the past few years, The Late Show’s cancellation signals more of a change in news reporting than it does the shift away from traditional late-night TV. Colbert’s ratings still outperformed those of his competitors, even as many viewers turn to popular YouTube shows like Hot Ones and Chicken Shop Date for celebrity interviews. Meanwhile, Trump’s efforts to curtail AP News and cease funding for NPR and PBS have gone largely unchallenged in court. It’s no surprise that many of our most prominent news institutions are likely sweating over how to toe the line between accurate reporting and appeasing the president.
I would also be remiss not to mention that Paramount is days aways from a merger with David Ellison at Skydance Media, which is currently held up by the Federal Communications Commission. Many insiders believe—though this is unconfirmed—that the FCC would not continue with the deal’s proceedings until after the 60 Minutes lawsuit. Colbert, a vocal critic of the current administration, also did not share the same viewpoints as the Ellisons. The Skydance CEO is son to billionaire and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who supported Trump throughout all his election campaigns.
Naturally, attention now shifts to the few remaining late-night hosts: Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers. Will their respective networks follow suit, and will the second Trump administration also see the death of late-night TV as we know it?
After the news dropped, Trump posted on Truth Social that he “absolutely love[d] that Colbert got fired.” The president added, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
