While taping his Thursday show, host Stephen Colbert made the surprising announcement that CBS is ending his late night show in May.
The live audience at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater booed when he delivered the news that this would be the show’s final season.
“Yeah, I share your feelings,” he told the audience. “It’s not just the end our our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
Colbert has hosted the top-rated show since 2015, taking over for David Letterman.
The news comes just days after Colbert criticized CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, whom Colbert regularly skewers in his monologues. Trump claimed the network interfered in the 2024 election by editing a 60 Minutes interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris.
Paramount is in the midst of closing a multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance, a deal that requires approval from the Trump administration.
Hmmmm
This is 100% CBS just cowardly caving in to fascism.
That said, the late night talk show format is baffling to me. I’ve had coworkers who seemed to earnestly enjoy them, but I thought the whole joke of letterman, leno, kimmel etc was to be intentionally unfunny, right? I just do not get it.
The jokes are meant to be funny and are to many of us. They have teams of writers and comedian hosts, so it definitely isn’t meant to be e unfunny.
The format it’s most general case is simple. Little monologue on current events and interviews with currently relevant public figures.
I tend to watch the monologues on Kimmel, Colbert and Seth Meyers. I’ll often skip most interviews…
I tried to watch Fallon, but…he’s too much like Leno for me. Trying to weave down some kind of imagined “center” of the nation’s tastes…
Corporate media do be like that. Still wow.
It’s all part of the authoritarian playbook.
Stephen Colbert was probably the only reason I turned on network TV late at night. What a blunder.
This is fascism pressuring critical media. It was one of their highest viewed shows.
Reminder the previous CEO for CBS said “Trump may not be be good for America, but he’s good for CBS. Keep going, Donald.”
Media megamergers are unhealthy. Less voices and perspectives allowed on the air.
lol. Initially said “Stephen Colbert retiring next year”. Getting fired is a very good reason to quit your job.
Grew up watching The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I’ll admit The Late Show just never did it for me. I tuned in for the opening monologue and that was it, and after a while just stopped watching.
Still, shame to see it end this way, especially knowing that this is almost certainly retaliatory. I just hope The Daily Show doesn’t get the axe too, because I’ve been very impressed by how they’ve been better than ever lately.
I just hope The Daily Show doesn’t get the axe too, because I’ve been very impressed by how they’ve been better than ever lately.
Same. For a while there, I was almost certain it was going to get cancelled during that phase after Trevor left - I was watching that while watching places like BoingBoing’s comment section were going off the rails and wondering if there was a concerted effort to try to crank out more Republicans due to how grating and terrible some on the left can be…many of the hosts were just awful, with Leslie Jones being maybe the worst. Shouting at the camera doesn’t make something funny.
I’m glad they brought back Jon to anchor it for one day and have a good roster of people doing it the rest of the time. Maybe the “representation” is not as high as the shows right after Trevor, but it’s way, way better again.
I wish some of the spin-offs were still around, like Larry Wilmore’s show or Klepper’s. Same with alums and their shows like Samantha Bee and Hasan Minhaj…
Keep licking that boot corporate media.
I like Colbert as a person/comedian, but I don’t know how people kept tuning in for years to hear that shitty fucking Trump impression night after night.
Shitty is the point. It’s a verbal caricature intended to mock.
And we know how mockery gets under the skin of socio/psychopaths.
I suppose it certainly worked if Trump has orchestrated his cancellation. Either way, I’m sure Colbert will move onto something better with more creative liberties and no network breathing down his neck. Guys like him usually land on their feet.
His biden impression was way worse.
Meh, I’m not tuning in for the impressions and I find the show hilarious.
Yeah, I seem to be in the clear minority here with my annoyance.
Meh
