Speaking during the taping of The Late Show on Thursday, July 17, at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater, far-left late-night television host Stephen Colbert admitted that CBS has decided to cancel The Late Show at the end of this season, with the show completely going away and him being kicked to the curb.
As background, CBS has said that the decision was a “purely financial” one, and it appears that the impetus for that financial decision might have been their major courtroom loss to President Donald Trump, which just lost $16 million to President Trump through its parent company Paramount, which settled with the president. Colbert criticised Paramount for settling with President Trump.
In any case, announcing the network’s decision to shutter his show, Colbert said that he had learned on Wednesday night that, after spending about a decade on air, the Late Show is being canceled and “next year will be our last season.” In fact, the show is being completely canceled and he won’t even be replaced.
The audience started booing when he announced that the show was being canceled, and he admitted that he agreed with them on that. He said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.” He then added, on that same point, that the show is gone for good and he with it, saying, “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.”
CBS, commenting on the decision to cancel the show, said, “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time.” Continuing, the joint statement from CBS executives admitted, “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.”
Concluding, they noted that the reason for the show’s cancellation is that budget cuts need to be made, not that there were other problems. However, it does seem unlikely they would cancel a show that performs well for financial reasons, belying their defense of the “show’s performance.” In any case, they said, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Entertainingly, Democrat lawmakers went berserk after the news was announced. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), for example, wrote, “Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled. If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”
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Similarly, Sen. Liz Warren (D-CA) insisted in a tweet that Paramount had “bribed” President Trump by settling a lawsuit with him, and snapped that Paramount shouldn’t have canceled the show for seemingly political reasons. She said, “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. America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Watch Colbert announce his show’s cancellation here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video