In May 2026, Stephen Colbert, the president of the United States, approved of the comedian’s decision to stop airing The Late Show.
The show’s cancellation was announced by CBS on Thursday in preparation for a looming merger between its parent company Paramount and Skydance Media.
The comedian also made the comment after Paramount apologized for their $ 16 million settlement with Trump. Trump claimed in a lawsuit that Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic challenger, and CBS’s flagship news program, 60 Minutes, had a doctored interview during the presidential campaign in 2024.
Due to the pending merger, which requires approval from the Department of Justice and is valued at $8 billion, Colbert, a long-time critic of the president, described the decision to settle as “a big fat bribe.”
The president wrote in a post on Truth Social, which read, “I absolutely love that Colbert was fired.”
Before going after Colbert’s other two rivals Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, saying they are next, without any supporting evidence, he continued, “His talent was even less than his ratings”.
Contrary to what the president claims, Colbert is performing well, earning 2.42 million viewers in the second quarter of 2025, making his show the highest rated late-night program in the industry.
The long-running late-night series, which replaced Pat Sajak on television in 1993 and was first hosted by David Letterman, was also terminated by the cancellation.
financial strains
“This is purely a financial choice against a challenging late-night setting.” According to a statement from CBS to Al Jazeera, the show’s performance, content, or other issues happening at Paramount are unrelated.
After a two-year run, CBS previously ended its late-night program After Midnight, which was hosted by comedian Taylor Tomlinson.
Experts think that assertion has merit.
The reality is that the late-night entertainment industry does not have any viable alternatives to the exorbitant salaries this talent earns and the costs associated with these productions. In the end, late-night production will largely be consumed on YouTube, according to Andrew Rosen, the founder of the media strategy firm Parqor.
According to reports from the outlet Puck, the show reportedly costs $100 million to produce each year and loses about $40 million in revenue.
Rosen continued, citing Paramount’s efforts to cut costs as it focuses on merging with Skydance, saying, “They’ve just maxed out the model for as long as they can and for a variety of reasons that I think probably have more to do with the economics of the merger with Skydance than they do with Trump.”
As of 1 p.m. in New York (17:00 GMT), Paramount’s stock is up 0.2%.
political planning
The Department of Justice is considering the merger as the news of the show’s cancellation comes. Despite having economics in mind, the decision is also perceived as being political.
Its timing raises a lot of questions. Rodney Benson, professor in the New York University’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, told Al Jazeera that the politics surround it, especially for broadcast legacy media.
The administration claims that the coverage is biased, including the $ 16 million lawsuit that Paramount settled with Trump, and the administration has pursued news organizations and their parent media companies. Disney-owned ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit in December by paying for Trump’s library with a $ 15 million settlement and apologizing for inaccurate on-air remarks. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) use and cuts to the public media also pose a threat to their broadcasting licenses’ future.
The FCC regulates broadcast networks, according to the FCC. The government can pursue them for what they perceive as news distortion if they need their licenses renewed, which they can be. They have already raised that, Benson continued.
Democrats have criticized the network for its alleged political justification for the show’s cancellation.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed on the social media platform X, which was formerly known as Twitter, that CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $ 16 million settlement with Trump, which appears to be bribery.
The timing suggests that if it were just financial, they would have wanted to wait a little, Benson continued. The optics are simply terrible, so there must have been some pressure, according to Benson.
David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, is in charge of Skydance, the company that is preparing to buy Paramount.
David Ellison, former confidante Elon Musk, health and human services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, and Ted Cruz, among others, fought for the UFC in April.
Source: Aljazeera
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