The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday’s July 25, 2019 show.
CBS Photo Archive | CBS | Getty Images
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will broadcast its final show next May, CBS said Thursday.
The network, which has aired “The Late Show” with Colbert as its host since 2015, said it is ending the franchise after a “historic run.”
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time,” CBS executives said in a joint statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” they added. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Colbert announced the news on his show Thursday, noting that he learned the news just the previous night.
“It’s not just the end of our show,” he said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
“The folks at CBS have been great partners,” he added.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday that he had just finished recording a segment with Colbert, a vocal critic of the Trump administration, and questioned the network’s explanation for canceling the show.
“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know,” he said on X. “And deserves better.”
CBS’ parent company, Paramount, is in the midst of an $8 billion merger with Hollywood studio Skydance. But the deal has been delayed for months as talks with lawyers for President Donald Trump dragged on after he filed a lawsuit over an interview the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Paramount agreed in principle on July 2 to settle the suit by paying $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library. However, Paramount Global said at the time, “this lawsuit is completely separate from and unrelated to the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.” Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, is investigating the deal.
Colbert recently criticized the settlement between Paramount and Trump on “The Late Show,” calling it “a big fat bribe.”
“Paramount knows they could have easily fought it because in their own words, the lawsuit was completely without merit,” he said, referring to how Paramount previously described the suit before settling.
