Stephen Colbert announced that CBS was canceling “The Late Show” during Thursday’s taping, sharing that the late night program would not return after May 2026.
This move from CBS came just days after the host and comedian criticized parent company Paramount on-air for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. It didn’t take long for fans of Colbert — and prominent politicians like California Sen. Adam Schiff and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — to call attention to the timing of the cancellation on social media.
“If Paramount and CBS ended ‘The Late Show’ for political reasons, the public deserves to know,” Schiff, who served as the guest on Thursday’s episode, said. “And deserves better.”
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery,” Warren, who has been outspoken about the settlement for months, said. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Others wrote, “This is a political favor to Trump, plain and simple,” and others questioned: “It’s a complete coincidence that this comes on the heels of CBS bowing to Trump’s demands and Colbert mocking them for it?”
In a statement, CBS called the cancellation a “purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” George Cheeks, Amy Reisenbach and David Stapf released the joint statement, which noted that “The Late Show’s” ending after the 2025-2026 season “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Many online found CBS’ statement on the cancellation difficult to trust — or at the very least digest. With Colbert so blatantly taking Paramount to task only days before the verdict (the late night host and comedian called the Trump settlement “big fat bribe”), social media posts are already citing the monologue as the true reason for the show’s cancellation.
Others were just disappointed to see the long-running late night series conclude — “The Late Show” has run longer than any show of its kind outside of “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show.”
You can view some of the reactions below.
You can watch Colbert’s announcement about “The Late Show’s” cancellation in the video below:
