Thursday’s announcement adopted Colbert’s criticism on Monday of a settlement between Trump and Paramount Global, the father or mother firm of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story.
Colbert advised his viewers at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater that he had discovered Wednesday night time that after a decade on air, “subsequent 12 months can be our final season. … It’s the tip of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. I’m not being changed. This is all simply going away.”
The viewers responded with boos and groans. “Yeah, I share your emotions,” the 61-year-old comedian stated.
Three prime Paramount and CBS executives praised Colbert’s present as “a staple of the nation’s zeitgeist” in a press release that stated the cancellation “is only a monetary determination towards a difficult backdrop in late night time. It will not be associated in any technique to the present’s efficiency, content material or different issues occurring at Paramount.”
In his Monday monologue, Colbert stated he was “offended” by the $16 million settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media wants the Trump administration’s approval. He stated the technical title in authorized circles for the deal was “large fats bribe.”
“I don’t know if something—something—will restore my belief on this firm,” Colbert said. “But, simply taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would assist.”
Trump had sued Paramount Global over how “60 Minutes” edited its interview final fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Critics say the corporate settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale.
Colbert took over The Late Show in 2015 after turning into a giant title in comedy and information satire, working with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and internet hosting The Colbert Report, which riffed on right-wing speak exhibits.
The most up-to-date rankings from Nielsen present Colbert gaining viewers thus far this 12 months and successful his timeslot amongst broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers throughout 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert’s Late Show landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for excellent speak present. It received a Peabody Award in 2021.
David Letterman started internet hosting The Late Show in 1993. When Colbert took over, he deepened its engagement with politics. Alongside musicians and film stars, Colbert typically welcomes politicians to his sofa.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California was a visitor on Thursday night time. Schiff stated on X that “if Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political causes, the general public deserves to know. And deserves higher.” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts launched an analogous assertion.
America deserves to know if his present was canceled for political causes.
Watch and share his message. pic.twitter.com/Rz7HcWFLYM
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 18, 2025
Colbert’s counterpart on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel, posted on Instagram “Love you Stephen” and directed an expletive at CBS.
Actor and producer Jamie Lee Curtis famous in an interview in Los Angeles that the cancellation got here because the House handed a invoice approving Trump’s request to chop funding to public broadcasters NPR and PBS.
“They’re making an attempt to silence individuals, however that received’t work. Won’t work. We will simply get louder,” stated Curtis, who has beforehand criticized Trump and is ready to go to Colbert’s present in coming days.
Colbert has lengthy focused Trump. The friends on his very first present in September 2015 had been actor George Clooney and Jeb Bush, who was then struggling in his Republican presidential main marketing campaign towards Trump.
“Gov. Bush was the governor of Florida for eight years,” Colbert advised his viewers. “And you’d assume that that a lot publicity to oranges and loopy individuals would have ready him for Donald Trump. Evidently not.”
Late-night TV has been going through financial pressures for years; rankings and advert income are down, and lots of younger viewers choose highlights on-line, which networks have hassle monetising. CBS additionally lately cancelled host Taylor Tomlinson’s After Midnight, which aired after The Late Show.
Still, Colbert had led the community’s late-night competitors for years. And whereas NBC has acknowledged financial pressures by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers’ present and chopping one night time of Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, there have been no such seen efforts at The Late Show.
Colbert’s relentless criticism of Trump, his denunciation of the settlement, and the father or mother firm’s pending sale can’t be ignored, stated Bill Carter, creator of The Late Shift.
“If CBS thinks individuals are simply going to swallow this, they’re actually deluded,” Carter stated.
Andy Cohen, who started his profession at CBS and now hosts Watch What Happens Live, stated in an interview: “It is a really unhappy day for CBS that they’re getting out of the late-night race. I imply, they’re turning off the lights after the information.”
