‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ viewers question why CBS canceled popular late-night show as Trump celebrates the decision

Fans, political figures and fellow late-night hosts seemed stunned Thursday night when comedian Stephen Colbert announced that CBS would be ending The Late Show in May 2026, with many questioning what pushed the network and its parent company, Paramount Global, to make the decision.

CBS said in a statement that canceling the show was “purely a financial decision” and “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

But viewers wondered whether the decision had anything to do with Paramount and its recent settlement with President Trump over his lawsuit against 60 Minutes. On Friday morning, Trump celebrated the decision in a Truth Social post.

“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” he wrote. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. He has even less talent than Colbert!”

Earlier this week, Colbert slammed Paramount’s decision to pay Trump $16 million after he filed a defamation lawsuit claiming CBS’s 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was edited in a way that created “substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.” As part of the settlement, Paramount said it would release the full transcripts of all future 60 Minutes interviews with presidential candidates.

In Monday’s opening monologue, Colbert said he was “offended” by Paramount’s settlement, and called the payment a “big fat bribe.”

“I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company,” Colbert said. “But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”

Days later, Colbert broke the news that The Late Show was canceled and would end in May 2026.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET, was the top late-night show in terms of total viewers, LateNighter reported, citing the data analytics company Nielsen. The Late Show also received its eighth Emmy nomination earlier this week.

Lawmakers and other media hosts are questioning the timing of Colbert’s jokes about the Paramount settlement and his show getting canceled all in one week, especially with other changes that have happened at CBS over the last few months. Since Trump filed the lawsuit in October 2024, Bill Owens, a former 60 Minutes executive producer, and Wendy McMahon, the former head of CBS News, stepped down from their roles, claiming they were concerned their journalistic independence was at risk. After Paramount settled the lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times reported that some CBS employees believed the settlement was influenced by Paramount’s pending $8.4 million merger with Skydance Media, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.

“I’m not crazy for thinking that this was related to Colbert criticizing the network, am I?” Jemele Hill, podcast host and contributing reporter for The Atlantic, asked on BlueSky. “Also something I’ve thought about — Trump put pressure on CBS to cancel Colbert.”

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts expressed similar concern over the decision, writing in a post on X, “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,” Warren concluded.

Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, who was one of the guests on Thursday’s Late Show episode, wrote on X, “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know.”

Fellow late-night hosts say they’re ‘shocked’

Comedians and fellow late-night hosts have been praising Colbert in response to the news.

“Love you Stephen,” Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, wrote on his Instagram Story Thursday night, alongside a clip of Colbert’s announcement. “F*** you and all your Sheldons CBS.”

“I’m just as shocked as everyone,” Jimmy Fallon, who hosts The Tonight Show on NBC, wrote on Instagram. “Stephen is one of the sharpest, funniest hosts to ever do it. I really thought I’d ride this out with him for years to come.”

“Stephen Colbert is a profoundly good and deeply talented man with a great staff and an excellent show,” said Andy Richter, the comedian who worked as Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on three late-night talk shows.

Jon Stewart, who hosts Comedy Central’s The Daily Show — for which Colbert was a correspondent for eight years — hasn’t yet publicly commented on The Late Show’s cancellation. But Stewart did mention on Thursday’s episode of The Weekly Show podcast that he wasn’t sure whether his own negative comments about the Paramount settlement would shut down his late-night show too, since Paramount Global owns Comedy Central. In the July 8 episode of The Daily Show, Stewart slammed the settlement and said networks are now “being held to a standard that will never be satisfactory to Donald Trump.”