Here's the HONEST TRUTH About Why Paramount Cancelled Stephen Colbert's Show

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Stephen Colbert taped his final episode, the series finale of the Late Show.

[00:00:05]Arguably, he is the king of late night, number one in the ratings on broadcast.

[00:00:12]He's seen a big outpouring of support leading up to the final episode. We've seen all the comics either speak out about this or outright come on the show.

[00:00:22]David Letterman came on for honestly a really funny taping this week, where he, who is the original host of the Late Show, of course, came on and took took turns sort of jabbing at CBS ownership.

[00:00:37]They threw watermelons off the roof, and they had a great time. But, I think that this is a really interesting moment because we're also seeing ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, who is a rival, who's on at the same time, going dark on Thursday for this final taping, and even encouraged people to watch Colbert's show instead.

[00:00:59]I hope that those of you who watch our show >> [applause] >> also tune in to CBS for the last time.

[00:01:05]Don't ever watch it again, but watch tomorrow night to wish Stephen and our friends at the Late Show off on farewell. So, okay. Now, let's talk about the who forced them off the air.

[00:01:16]CBS has said that the whole reason for this, the whole reason why they have to end the show, is that the show is unaffordable. It's, quote, a purely financial decision. They said the show was costing them something to the tune of $40 a year cuz they have a big staff at the theater here in New York, the Ed Sullivan Theater. Yeah. Um but, Colbert himself found the whole thing very surprising.

[00:01:39]He was telling the New York Times just a month ago that CBS had actually come to him and encouraged him in 2023 to sign a five-year deal. They really wanted to keep him. Um which would obviously mean that he would be on the air until at least 2028. So, something has changed.

[00:01:56]Can you believe it? In the last year over at CBS, which is owned by Paramount and David Ellison.

[00:02:04]What do you make of this? Well, obviously John, the thing that changed is that they did this big deal with David Ellison. And you know, we reported before Stephen Colbert's show was canceled that Donald Trump was obviously exerting a num you know, enormous pressure on on on Shari Redstone and David Ellison at the time to get concessions so that he would approve their deal. He was using the power of the federal government to try to censor his critics, shocker. And lo and behold, right before the deal closes, they announce that Stephen Colbert's show is going to be canceled.

[00:02:38]Now, CBS like you said is saying it's about money, but come on. Like David Ellison is spending a lot of money on a lot of things, but apparently has no money for his top-rated, most recognizable person on CBS. It just doesn't really add up. I I think what's also telling John is that David Ellison, you know, he's trying to wipe his hands clean of this whole thing and say, "Look, previous management, they're the ones that did this. I had nothing to do with this. I came in and he was already canceled." Which is absurd. If David Ellison really did not agree with that decision or wanted to keep Colbert, he could snap his fingers right now and say, "I want Colbert. We're going to renew that show. I don't know what previous management was doing. I'm the new owner. I like that show. We want it on there. We're going to find a way to make it work." Yep. He didn't do that.

[00:03:23]In fact, Stephen Colbert has said that he hasn't heard from David Ellison since he took over the company. Stephen Colbert was actually quite generous, quite nice, quite classy, and said that he was very much looking forward to talking to David Ellison. He said that he had heard good things about him and he wanted to work with him, but he never heard from him.

[00:03:41]And when I was at this press conference last last year, CBS had this big press conference, they let people like me in the room, and I walked up to David Ellison, asked him a lot of questions, but one of them was, "Hey, David, what do you think about the cancellation of Stephen Colbert? And is this something you would like to reverse?"

[00:04:01]And he I don't think he wanted to answer that question very much. And he was he seemed honestly a little bit taken aback by it. But he told me at the time that he wasn't going to second-guess what George Cheeks, who was the head of CBS under previous management and now David Ellison, had done. And it's like, "Really? You're not going to You're not going to look at that?" I mean, it's a pretty important decision that was made literally right before you took over the company. You don't want to review that?"

[00:04:26]But And the whole The whole reason I say this, it's obviously more than just the money. Right? Donald Trump hates these comedians on the air. He hates Stephen Colbert. He had called for him to be fired before. And he hates Jimmy Kimmel.

[00:04:38]And we're seeing how he's doing everything he can to get Jimmy Kimmel fired from the air. The reason that Stephen Colbert, let's be clear about this, is not going to be on the air anymore is because Donald Trump does not want him on the air anymore.

[00:04:50]That's That's it. If this was not about politics, CBS would have found a way to cut costs of the show. They could have got rid of the rid of the band. They could have done something with the theater. They could have maybe cut the amount of nights that Colbert is doing.

[00:05:02]Maybe it's only Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. There's a number of creative ways they could have got around this and said, "We want this person at the network. The Late Show is an iconic program. We're not going to just get rid of it." They decided to throw it all away. The only reason that makes any sense is because of Donald Trump.

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