Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show”, long a staple of late night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump as “a big fat bribe.”
CBS said in a statement the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” and was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
“Next year will be our last season,” the host announced on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Thursday to boos and shouts of disbelief. “The network will be ending the show in May.”
Paramount reached its $16 million settlement with Trump this month in a lawsuit the entertainment giant had described as meritless.
Trump sued Paramount for $20 billion last year, alleging that CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.
The company is seeking to close its $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval.
Colbert said on Thursday the cancellation was not just the end of his show but the end of the decades-old “The Late Show” franchise, which has been broadcast continuously on CBS since 1993.
“I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he said.
-‘America deserves better’-
Trump celebrated the cancellation, writing on his Truth Social platform, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
Trump’s political opponents and other critics drew attention to the timing of the decision.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media platform X.
“America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,” Warren said.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who was on Colbert’s show the night he announced it would be ending, said: “If Paramount and CBS ended the ‘Late Show’ for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who has his own late night program, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, on ABC, was among the celebrities that condemned CBS’s decision. “Love you Stephen.”
Skyler Higley, a writer on “After Midnight,” joked on X that “the Colbert thing is actually quite worrying do you know what it means when they start coming for the white Catholics?”
“After Midnight” was the show that followed “The Late Show” on CBS and was championed and executive produced by Colbert until it too was cancelled in June.
CBS said in its Thursday statement it was “proud that Stephen called CBS home.”
“He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television,” its statement said.
Colbert, one of the most popular American comedians, made use of humor in his incisive political commentary and succeeded David Letterman as the host of “The Late Show” in 2015.
Before that Colbert was a regular on Comedy Central alongside fellow talk show host and political pundit Jon Stewart.
The late-night television landscape has long been dominated by satirical comedy shows that blend entertainment with political commentary.
For decades, programs such as “The Late Show”, “The Tonight Show,” and “Late Night” have served as television touchstones, with hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and more recently Colbert and Jimmy Fallon shaping public discourse through humor and celebrity interviews.
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