Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” Canceled by CBS Due to “Financial” Reasons
According to cinemadrame news agency, the talk show “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS has been canceled for reasons stated as “financial.” A few days prior, Stephen Colbert had criticized Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, for settling with Donald Trump, calling it a “big, fat bribe” to secure approval for its merger with Skydance.
CBS network executives have called Colbert one of the “giants” of American late-night programming and stated that the comedian will not be replaced, but rather his show will be canceled entirely. A portion of their statement read: “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will be canceling the show. We are proud that Stephen has called CBS his home.” The network emphasized that this decision was made for “financial” reasons and is not related to the comedian’s performance, the show’s content, or other Paramount issues.
Variety reported that Colbert was informed of this decision on Wednesday night. He confirmed the show’s cancellation on Thursday night’s broadcast, stating that its run would conclude in May of next year.
A few days earlier, Colbert had commented on the Paramount-Trump settlement: “While I was on vacation, Paramount, our network’s parent company, paid Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the ’60 Minutes’ program. As someone who’s always been proud to be an employee of this network, I found this action insulting, and I don’t know if it’s possible to restore my trust in this company.”
The comedian called the former president’s lawsuit against CBS, alleging assistance to Kamala Harris by editing the “60 Minutes” program, “completely baseless,” and joked: “And remember, Paramount made ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’.”
He added: “Paramount issued a statement saying: ‘You can take our money, but not our dignity. Of course, you can buy our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the money.'”
Colbert further described the settlement as a “big, fat bribe” because “these actions are happening at a time when Paramount is trying to appease the Trump administration to get approval for its merger with Skydance.”
