CBS to Cancel ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Citing ‘Financial Decision’

If he wants to continue he should just produce his show on his own and air it on YouTube. No one really watches broadcast tv anymore.

Jon Stewart should do the same.

Google would probably cancel them there too if enough money exchanged hands between the right (err... wrong) people.
Speaking of 'financial decisions,' CBS isn't entirely wrong there, money has to have exchanged hands somewhere for this to happen.

happened right after 16million lawsuit paid to trump by cbs, and after he criticized him.

It's because they want to do the Skydance merger.
The "financial decision" is "We want money money money money, we'll do anything! Look! Look! We'll fuckin' fire one of our highest rating earners. You like that, Papa T? We did that to make you love us ;)"
- kinda wierd people are denying its not because of trump in this thread, multiple subs are already reporting including other talk show host indicated it was a threat-based cancellation. some of the users got mad because nutrek was axed by paramount, eventhough the franchise in its current form is terrible other someone like kurtzman.

Firing Colbert and canceling his show, days after he criticized Paramounts Payola to Trump. Thats the "financial decision"

CBS is a bunch of trumps cucks.

STEWART/COLBERT 2028

That would be a dream come true

They’re going to speak Chinese on Mars because of this president.

Sure, in like four or five centuries maybe.
All that science fiction with colonies across the solar system by 20XX (or even the 2100s), its more fiction than science. Any sort of colony on Mars or the Moon or the skies of Venus or whatever is gonna have to recreate a biosphere from scratch. That alone would take decades upon decades of work -- and that's only really possible after we stabilize the biosphere we already live in.
First building an equilibrium with nature would give us the kind of expertise needed to actually make space colonies anything other than a pipe dream.
- There's a lot about life today that would feel like science fiction long ago. But we wouldn't get here without progress. Administrations like the current American one for example are an example of regression not progression.
  First building an equilibrium with nature would give us the kind of expertise needed to actually make space colonies anything other than a pipe dream.
  Yeah, we're definitely backtracking on that one.

Highest rating show. Financial decision.

Nah. All who oppose Trump will be silenced.

Kimmel next

Late show was also just nominated for an Emmy.
Kimmel and John Stewart are in fact being targeted next.
I predicted that this would happen if the country started an irreversible slide into fascist warlord dictatorship, I just thought it would be much further down the road.
Watch, in about a year all of these comedians and liberal pundits are going to be replaced by right-wing grifters and podcasters capturing the stupid, populist attention spans of people who just want to stare at flashing lights and listen to people screaming about how evil trans children are interrupted by ads for essential oils and testosterone supplements. This isn't an exaggeration, this is what we can expect.
- It will just be filled copaganda shows, and sprinkle in some military props, and mostly reality shows, which caters to the lowest common denominator, which happens to be conservatives. The news in these networks will just turn into another fox clone, if it isn't already
Kimmel has already said this is his last season, voluntarily.
Daily Show is next. Maybe Seth Meyers.
- Kimmel has already said this is his last season, voluntarily.
  Remember that when Conan was forced out, he had specific gag orders about what he could say or not, so take the "voluntary" part with a few grains of salt until that potential gag order expires, if it ever does.
  Really what's happening is fascist censorship of opposition voices and satire is a powerful tool in speaking truth to power, making comedians highly threatening to fascists. Corporations like Skydance don't care about civilization or a better world, they need line to go up, and the fastest, most efficient way to get that line up is to buy some fascists to run the country you're located in.

He called it. He said that this would happen in order for the deal to go through. They are trying to silence as many people as possible like any other fascist authoritarian countries.

kinda wierd how some people in this thread are denying its not that. it was pretty obvious right after thier 16mil settlement.
Source (skipped ahead to the right timestamp):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzvx3L3DQb8&t=248
- Happy Fediversary!
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I feel like he just replaced Letterman a year or two ago and now the show is already ending. Where the hell did all the time go? How am I nearly 40 already?

If it makes you feel better, this has nothing to do with normal Hollywood celebrity shuffling and contractual disputes, this is entirely targeted political censorship. Colbert is/was the highest rated talk show on network television and was just nominated for an emmy.
- That doesn't really confort me much, given that I just realized that it has been TEN YEARS since Letterman left! I hate how quickly time started moving when COVID first hit. Time never slowed back down, it never slowed back down!
- i wonder if he will try to sue them for this. skydance ceo is a trumper , so theres already a conflict of interest.

This was part of CBS' bribery payment, along with the $16 million to settle the 60 Minutes case, which would have been an easy win in court.

ABC and CBS have been compromised and have paid bribes. When will he go after NBC?

He criticized the surpreme leader? Probably lucky to still be alive...

the ceo of skydance is a trumper, its more than a coincidence.

Criticized Trump. Had to go or the merger was not going to be approved by Trump's ass-suckers.

Or mb this echochamber isn't financially viable
- If echo chambers weren't financially viable then Fox News wouldn't exist.
- The show is like 2% of the entire company's revenue. You don't just cut your biggest property for "financial reasons".

Get him and John Stewart back together. Throw in some John Oliver, too.

HBO should pick up both of them and their crew, and let someone other than John publicly eviscerate them during every show. HBO execs get off from the abuse! They could get 2x more of it, and less British accent!
- Unfortunately ~~HBO~~ ~~HBO MAX~~ ~~MAX~~ HBO MAX is run by a complete moron.
- No, they should all go to PBS so it's (for now) freely available to everyone. Have them ask for donations to keep it going, PBS/NPR would be good for at least a while.
- With that trio they could have the Top Gear of late night.
- Are you trying to print gold?! CAUSE THAT'S YOUR YOU PRINT GOLD!

I can't wait for it to be replaced with nonstop infomercials for supplemental medicare.

The jokes on them. people don't watch it on TV. They just look for the YouTube video with Stephen Colbert in it. He can do that on his own
- YouTube with those kind of numbers every day is some real money. They could create an online only channel, not constrained by formats, which could have huge audiences, with the taping done during late night's time slots.

I hope he uses this to go off the rails going into the election summer

He’s done in March 2026 though.
- I thought he said May, but, anyway, I said going into the election summer
  Edit : the midterms

Hey, gotta pay for their corrupt bribes somehow, right?

Stephen deserves better, so does the audience, and I hope he spends the rest of the time there making the pus-sucking execs regret their bullshit. While I doubt they can feel shame or embarrassment, I'm confident he can find ways to make the stain set; and then move on to do something independent so I can support him, cause through ups and downs he's been a real one for a large part of my life. Mostly I hope Paramount actually dies of shame and fails entirely as a company, and the merger their executives burning this all for is a monkey's paw that gives them all gigaherpes and ass cancer.

He should do what Conan did and bring back the Bugatti Veyron Mouse.
- Absolutely legendary. Love me some Conan, he does petty spite sooo right!
- That is next level pettiness that we all should aspire too.

Immediate retribution: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/stephen-colbert-jon-stewart-call-out-paramount-possibly-risking-late-night-futures/ar-AA1IEbJo

Time to reform Strike Force Five ⚡⚡⚡
- I loved that podcast! I wouldn't say no to more.

I used to watch "Late shows" on YouTube, but after the 2nd time Trump got elected, I stopped consuming any political content from the US, and again after the "Liberation Day", I stopped consuming any US produced media (including YouTube content creators). I just can't deal with so much "Trump content", nor do I want to keep to, in any manner, help content that thrives on that.

I just can't deal with a second season of "The House of Trump".

I'm not implying that this is why it got cancelled, just expressing the reason to why I even stopped watching it, on YouTube. Can't say if others have done the same or not, but following American politics is... exhausting.

You think it's exhausting, try living in it.
- My parents already lived through a dictatorship, and I know the struggles that came along with it, including a post-colonial war and being subject to a thought police, that persecuted and prosecuted anyone, just for owning specific books, many of which were not even political. So while I have not lived through it, my parents did, much worse than you, and I was raised in a post-dictatorship regime completely aware of what the previous generation had to go through, thank you very much!
  And has the old saying goes... "Those who forget history, are doomed to repeat itself", and considering you are on the second Trump term, just after a 4 year hiatus, you guys must have the memory of a gold fish.
  PS - I had a much longer and extensive post originally, but quite honestly, I do not want to enter a debate about this. But what you guys need is though love. In fact I believe that the only way that the US can escape the current political paradigm, is if you go full dictatorship, live under it for a few decades, and finally have a revolution. You are constantly on a situation where you move 1 step ahead, and 2 backwards, shifting between Democrats and Republicans, and with neither having the will to make a meaningful change to the system. I could say much much much more, but I wont, if only because, I no longer have the bandwidth for US politics, as I have already stated!
  Good luck!
Conan is the only one worth watching/listening to. Hardly ever gets into politics.
Funniest podcast available too imo (well, maybe that or Bonanas for Bonanza)
- I do love Conan. But he only has a podcast now, right? I loved those bits about "Fan Corrections"! LOL

Everybody is saying this is politically motivated and I don't really think I buy that. Not ruling out the possibility entirely, though. Anything is possible but the logic just doesn't work out to me.

First, CBS paid Trump. Trump didn't pay them. They already capitulated by paying him off. Why would they capitulate further by getting rid of the most popular late night program if it was profitable?

Second, if this was political why are they keeping the show on until May of next year? Wouldn't trump want them to cancel it sooner?

Third, they're canceling the late show entirely. If they were canceling it to get someone critical of trump out of there why wouldn't they just replace colbert with someone more favorable to him?

Fourth, these shows have had declining ratings for years now and the writing has been on the wall for a long time that these shows were not going to be able to hang around for forever in today's streaming climate. I think more cancelation announcements are likely.

As much as I hate trump and wouldn't put something like this past him I really don't think it's likely that this has anything to do with him. Doing this for money reasons is fully in line with how terrible capitalism is for art and I can absolutely believe that this was some dumbfuck accounting decision.

Why would they capitulate further by getting rid of the most popular late night program if it was profitable?
Trump is blocking the merger of CBS/Skydance/Paramount. Hence financial decision.
Wouldn't trump want them to cancel it sooner?
Of course, but as a famous deal maker, this is the best Trump could do.
If they were canceling it to get someone critical of trump out of there why wouldn't they just replace colbert with someone more favorable to him?
They will. They're throwing Trump a bone and will replace the show with some POS pedo right-wing grift-fest. They can't have anyone on-air who Trump doesn't have kompromat on.
I think more cancelation announcements are likely.
Hell yes they are. Anyone even slightly critical of the regime must go if the Eye of Sauron gazes upon them.
CBS' parent company, Paramount, is in merger talks with Skydance. Mergers must be approved by the federal government. (I thought it was the FTC, but I see the FCC mentioned in articles about this ... don't want to dig into the weeds here. The feds must approve.)
This used to be done by a theoretically impartial board which would make decisions based on benefit to the public. Now there isn't even a pretense of caring about the public good. If Trump is happy with the tribute he receives, the merger will go through. If he's upset, it won't.
Yeah, CBS already folded and paid a huge fine as a "settlement" to a lawsuit they could almost certainly have won in court, but when you're trying to appease a mob boss you just have to keep paying.
It's true that putting the end date for Colbert a year out isn't as extreme an appeasement than just pulling him off the air, but there are many factors involved. The mob boss has declared that he is pleased with the outcome, so mission accomplished.
- It wasn't a fine, it was a "donation" to Trump presidential library. It's completely different
  A fine implies that the money goes to the government, but here goes directly in Trump's hands
- Also Skydance’s owner is a Trump ally
It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that Trump wanted the payout AND getting rid of Colbert as part of a bribe to allow the merger.
Keeping the show until May of next year may just be due to contracts that they have with Colbert and other employees of the show. This way they avoid any lawsuits, etc related to breach of contract.
Same with cancelling the show. It seems kind of like how instead of termination for no reason, companies "eliminate the position".
If the show had low ratings, I might agree, but it doesn't seem like that was the case. It's awfully suspicious given that we already know Paramount will bend over for Trump, it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.
The Trump admin controls all the levers to make things much worse for CBS. Why do you think they capitulated with that ~~bribe~~ settlement payment for a case everyone agreed had no merit?
Whoever downvoted MeaanBeaan here, why? I suspect you just disagree; that's not a legitimate reason for a downvote. He bothered to offer his analysis, and at least to me it reads like a legit take on events, not trolling. If you disagree, say what you disagree with (like I did). If you're too lazy to do that, just skip it. Downvotes are for trolls.
- thats because hes just parroting what other conservatives said on reddit, they said the same sht, but ignored the fact this happened right after the lawsuit, and the merger , skydance is a trumper.
- Tldr. Downvoted.

This sucks to see. Hopefully he’ll get picked up somewhere else and go back to a format closer to what the Colbert report used to be.

Yeah I didn’t really enjoy prim and proper corporate Colbert. His show was pretty mediocre. I believe it was also his decision to step away from his original persona and move on to a standard talk show host, so he actually wanted that change. Ferguson is still the GOAT for me.
- I miss Craig Ferguson so much!
- I thought it was because Comedy Central had a claimed trademark or something regarding the character he played, but it's been a while so I might be misremembering
The Colbert Report would be difficult to reformulate due to Colbert’s prominence and the fact that he’s been, ahem…overt…with his political opinions since he gave up the character. As ridiculous as it sounds, a lot of people literally thought he was conservative when he was doing the character both on Daily Show and Colbert Report, which afforded him a lot of opportunity to play it up. I don’t think that would be the case if he went back. Plus, a few critical writers who contributed to segments like “The Word” moved on towards the end of Colbert Report, and I think they were really critical to the quality of the show that “Late Show” never quite matched…
…Or maybe he could just dive right back in and it would be awesome. What do I know about show business I’m just some guy.
Or go back to doing shit like Strangers with Candy

Holy shit, killing off the late show? It's an institution

TBF it only started because Letterman got fucked over and CBS wanted to compete with the Tonight Show. It's been around for a long time but not nearly as long as -- okay I'm old.
- They fucked over Conan too, he was supposed to get Leno's spot but they switched it on him at the last moment
Nobody gives a shit about late night TV anymore but boomers. I mean the entire concept has been obsolete for years now due to streaming... Anyone under the age of 55 just watches clips on YouTube if anything from the show was worth watching.
This can only mean that CBS are pedos too?

YouTube killed the tv star?

YouTube is where I watch the late show…
Lol, this has pretty much zero to do with YouTube IMO.

TBH, I haven't watched late night television since we lost Letterman, Ferguson and O'Brien.

We will never again see the likes of:

https://youtu.be/sOEBgSBfko0

or:

https://youtu.be/qAHSUTB5BJc

or:

https://youtu.be/wF7kHrNNKVk

If you prefer long form humor:

https://youtu.be/WRx-XgErZ0U

Ferguson was legend!

I know a country where he could work from.

tl;dr - Late Night was killed by the Internet. This has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the increasing irrelevance of television.

Late night is dying. This isn't a conspiracy. This isn't bowing to Trump. It's just good timing for Trump.

Before I say anything else, I need to make one thing abundantly clear that these headlines keep being sketchy about. Colbert was not cancelled. His contract just wasn't renewed. That is a pretty big distinction. One of them is ending a contract pre-emptively, the other is just deciding to not continue with those services after an agreed upon point.

Everyone keeps suggesting this is because of Trump but you're ignoring what has been happening to both the Late Show and Late Night in general for years. The entire format is dying. Most people don't watch the show live anymore, they do it on YouTube. Financially that's not viable for the studios. The cost they put into it doesn't equal out over the amount they can get back from YouTube. It doesn't make financial sense for them to keep making the show when no one is watching it on its primary method. They could try to pivot the entire show to YouTube but that also would be kinda hard to justify the cost.

Like all of you in these comments seem to forget that Conan was reduced to 30 minutes before being cancelled, not having any Late Show replacement. Seem to forget that Corden was cancelled and replaced with an internet game show. Seem to forget that Samantha Bee's show wasn't replaced by any late show either. ~~Or Lily Singh's~~. Or that the Outstanding Variety Talk Series has gone from 6 entries in 2019 to just 3 entries in 2025. Or the fact that Colbert has lost 1 million viewers from 2019 to 2025 while still retaining topdog for Late Night in viewership? If the other hosts didn't get bumps in viewers (they didn't) then it's because they just stopped watching...

Why? First off, the entire market is saturated. You've got too many Late Night hosts to choose from, all of them in essentially the time slot or close to it. All of them then talk about the exact same thing. The only thing you're watching one show over the other for is the host or the guests that episode. Then there's the focus on American politics which makes sense because it's an American show but it alienates people outside the country from watching it on YouTube. And due to it having a heavy focus on American politics, like a lot does now a days, a lot of people are exhausted and don't want to tune in. They want an escape not another reminder. Not to mention the fact that attention spans have become shorter and we've gotten accustomed to on-demand viewing.

Seth Meyers is probably the only host who could easily survive this. Fallon and Kimmel have way too much money dumped into their shows, granted Fallon has more shows so maybe more pull. Meyers runs everything on a shoestring and has a hard focus on politics, not splitting his attention. He focuses the majority of his non-Guest screentime on politics with stuff like A Closer Look as well so his show doesn't feel quite as pulled in two directions. The guest conversations are also super relaxed and casual, seeming to focus more on smaller celebrities than having constant big ones. He's already basically an Internet show so the transition for him is fine. Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon? They're too big, too grandiose, too expensive and now have far too little profit from the investment.

Edit: Downvote me all you want. This isn't some grand plan to try and silence Colbert. The only people who listen to him are left leaning to begin with. He's not reaching anyone new or changing minds. He's not being the single educating point. Him being cancelled on its own might have a point but considering every late night show has been talking about the death of Late Night for years? This is a reach. Enjoy your bizarre conspiratorial nonsense. I'll go shave with Occam.

Edit 2: I messed up and said Lily Singh's show wasn't replaced by another Late Show. It was. The Amber Ruffin Show.

Sure, Jan.
not reading all that
- Bro the tl;dr was at the top of the comment

I loved the Tek Jannsen short cartoons he had on occaisonally

They were based off of William Shatner's TekWar series of books. My uncle gave me a few and I tried reading them. Just imagine Tek Jannsen, but without any of the humor.
- Shepow-pow.

I didn't even know he was sick

I mean there’s no way he’s cheap and his salary increases every year, at some point the show becomes a net loss.

I know people like conspiracy but to be fair, i only ever watch that show on YouTube clips and never live, so the ratings must be dipping

Colbert sucked as soon as he dropped the right wing commentator schtick.

Sucks because he'd have a lot of material if he kept it up.

OTOH it's hard to do satire these days because everything is already absurd.
He was TOO good at the satire. On the left dum-dums thought he was actually right, while on the right dum-dums thought he was on their side.
Also, I think people are hitting their limit of joking about the collapse of democracy and civil society. I know I am. I know there are now movies, TV, and books that I might have found interesting in less interesting times; now it all just hits too close to home. John Oliver can hit those "too close to home" topics and move on to other things. But it always felt like when Colbert was doing his conservative pundit schtick, he was trapped in it. It was harder to laugh along with him about other things that weren't specifically about that kind of satire. He might have had some more material of a particular idiom if he'd stuck with it, but that idiom can wear thin.
Agreed
His satire was top tier. Late show version was too... Well, like a normal network late show

I'm kinda with this. He was the absolute best on the Colbert Report, but the second he went mainstream, he lost his luster. Hopefully he finds a new show to host where he can get back to his roots.