On Thursday, CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been canceled. Now, the real reason behind this has been revealed.
CBS Cancels The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
CBS shocked the nation that by revealing that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be ending in May of 2026. This means that the cancelation will happen after the next season. In a surprising twist, CBS will not be replacing Stephen Colbert with another late night host. Instead, the network will be retiring The Late Show franchise altogether.
Some have speculated that this could be a political decision, as Colbert has been incredibly critical of the current presidential administration. Indeed, Colbert has taken to shamelessly using The Late Show to bash Donald Trump on a nightly basis. However, CBS is claiming that the cancelation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
It seems that in alienating half of his audience whose political views don’t align with his own, Colbert caused his ratings to dip so much so that CBS could no longer keep his show on television from a financial perspective. Perhaps Colbert should have taken a page out of the playbooks of late night legends like Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, and kept politics out of his show!
CBS Praises Colbert
CBS had nothing but praise for Colbert, calling him “irreplaceable.” The network added that his show ending is “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” which is the parent company of CBS.
“We are proud that Stephen called CBS home,” CBS continued. “He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.”
“Our admiration, affection, and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult,” CBS concluded. “With much gratitude, we look forward to honoring Stephen and celebrating the show over the next 10 months alongside its millions of fans and viewers.”
Related: Jay Leno Calls For Less Partisanship In Late Night – John Oliver Fires Back
Colbert Fires Back
Colbert, 61, let his audience know about the cancelation during his show on Thursday night. He explained that he had only just learned that his show had been canceled the night before.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS,” he said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. And I do want to say … that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I’m so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course I’m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night.”
Colbert went on to thank the show’s band. He said that he’s “extraordinarily, deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here.”
“I’ve had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years,” Colbert concluded. “It is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it. It’s a job that I’m looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months.”
Is This The End For Late Night In General?
Colbert took over hosting The Late Show from David Letterman back in 2015. In the years since then, late night has become extremely political.
Indeed, late night has gone from something that all Americans could enjoy together regardless of their political beliefs, to being yet another tool for the left to lecture the country about liberal politics. This has led to overall ratings for late night dramatically decreasing. Go figure!
In the end, Colbert’s fellow liberal late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, who have also politicized their respective shows, might want to take notice of CBS’ move here. Unfortunately for the increasingly small number of people who watch late night religiously, it seems that this medium may soon be gone forever.
Good riddance!
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