In a surprise move, CBS has announced the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, bringing the long-running franchise to a close in May 2026. The network insists the decision is purely financial, but that hasn’t stopped some Democrats from suggesting a more sinister motive.
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,” CBS brass said in a statement. “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time. 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.”
Colbert … said that he was grateful to CBS for giving him the chair. “I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” Colbert said.
The reaction in the studio was swift, according to ABC.
The late-night host’s announcement was met with boos from the audience. “Yeah, I share your feelings,” Colbert said, going on to thank the network and the show’s more than 200-person crew for their longstanding commitment to the program.
CBS executives made clear the decision wasn’t about politics, content, or ratings.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” George Cheeks, the president of CBS and co-chief executive of Paramount, CBS’s parent company, wrote in a press release. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The announcement comes as CBS and its parent company, Paramount, face increased scrutiny over their restructuring plans, including a high-profile shareholder lawsuit challenging the Skydance Media merger. The suit alleges that Paramount’s leadership ignored better offers and rushed into the Skydance deal to preserve their own power. The timing of Colbert’s cancellation — in the middle of executive shakeups and mounting legal pressure — added fuel to the fire for conspiracy theorists on the left.
Still, the most eyebrow-raising reactions came from two U.S. Senators. Both Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren jumped to Colbert’s defense, suggesting the cancellation may have been politically motivated, despite CBS repeatedly denying any such link.
Their comments quickly became the center of online backlash, as conservatives mocked the idea that a decade-long, high-paid run on network television amounted to some sort of political persecution.
The reaction from the left painted Colbert as a truth-teller being silenced. The reaction from the right? They saw a fading genre getting one last round of applause before the curtain fell, and a Democratic Party so deep in its echo chamber, it probably thinks canceling a late-night show is a threat to democracy.
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