CBS says Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show' to end in May 2026
CBS said in a statement the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," and was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
"Next year will be our last season," the host announced on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Thursday to boos and shouts of disbelief. "The network will be ending the show in May."
Paramount reached its $16 million settlement with Trump this month in a lawsuit the entertainment giant had described as meritless.
Trump sued Paramount for $20 billion last year, alleging that CBS News' "60 Minutes" program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.
The company is seeking to close its $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval.
Colbert said on Thursday the cancellation was not just the end of his show but the end of the decades-old "The Late Show" franchise, which has been broadcast continuously on CBS since 1993.
"I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away," he said.
-'America deserves better'-
Trump celebrated the cancellation, writing on his Truth Social platform, "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings."
Trump's political opponents and other critics drew attention to the timing of the decision.
"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," Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media platform X.
"America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons," Warren said.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who was on Colbert's show the night he announced it would be ending, said: "If Paramount and CBS ended the 'Late Show' for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better."
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who has his own late night program, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", on ABC, was among the celebrities that condemned CBS's decision. "Love you Stephen."
Skyler Higley, a writer on "After Midnight," joked on X that "the Colbert thing is actually quite worrying do you know what it means when they start coming for the white Catholics?"
"After Midnight" was the show that followed "The Late Show" on CBS and was championed and executive produced by Colbert until it too was cancelled in June.
CBS said in its Thursday statement it was "proud that Stephen called CBS home."
"He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television," its statement said.
Colbert, one of the most popular American comedians, made use of humor in his incisive political commentary and succeeded David Letterman as the host of "The Late Show" in 2015.
Before that Colbert was a regular on Comedy Central alongside fellow talk show host and political pundit Jon Stewart.
The late-night television landscape has long been dominated by satirical comedy shows that blend entertainment with political commentary.
For decades, programs such as "The Late Show", "The Tonight Show," and "Late Night" have served as television touchstones, with hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and more recently Colbert and Jimmy Fallon shaping public discourse through humor and celebrity interviews.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Russia kills 25 in Ukraine, as Kremlin says 'committed' to peace
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." - 'War crimes' - Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility, where 30 people worked. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. - Hospital targeted - "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Trump makes world leaders look ‘impotent' as US border crossings ‘virtually' zero
Sky News contributor Kosha Gada discusses the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 'Border crossings are virtually zero, and we all know that immigration has really been a debacle for Western countries over the last half-century,' Ms Gada told Sky News host Rita Panahi. 'He's laying that bare, he's showing that it can be turned around, and it's just making the rest of the world leaders look totally impotent and feckless that they're not able to do this. 'Their populations are crying out for it.'
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Disturbing': Mrs Doubtfire star's wild plan to revive Robin Williams with AI despite daughter
It's been 32 years since Mrs Doubtfire graced our screens. Now, the actor who played Chris Hillard wishes to resurrect his late co-star, the legendary Robin Williams, in a very 2025 way. Matthew Lawrence wants Williams to be the trusty voice reading out the weather on our smart speakers. He told Entertainment Weekly that the actor should be the next 'voice of AI.' 'I would love — now, obviously, with the respect and with the okay from his family — but I would love to do something really special with his voice because I know for a generation, that voice is just so iconic.' 'It's not just the fact that I knew him and worked with him, and so it's in my head — it's in everybody's head. And it would be so cool.' The idea came to Lawrence after watching one of Williams' old commercials. The actor, who died by suicide in 2014 at age 63, had done a computerised voiceover that Lawrence found eerily ahead of its time. 'It's kinda like this very contemporary, modern, almost sort of foreshadowing of what's going on commercial that he did, where he did this computerised voiceover,' he explains. 'And it always stuck with me. And then, during his passing, with the AI coming out, I'm like, 'Man, he's gotta be the voice of A.I. He's gotta be the voice in something.' So yeah, I would love to do that.' There's no denying Williams' voice is instantly recognisable. Hearing it again would likely spark nostalgia and joy for many. Still, using AI in a project like this raises serious concerns. Lawrence, clearly enthusiastic, suggested plenty of possibilities for Robin's voice in tech — even using it for driving navigation. 'It would be Robin!' Lawrence happily stated. 'It would be so cool. I'm telling you.' Yelling at Siri or Alexa when you miss a turn is normal these days. But yelling at the voice of Robin Williams might come with some follow-up guilt. William's daughter, Zelda Williams, has publicly slammed AI recreations of her father. During the SAG-AFTRA strike in October 2023, she posted a statement on social media expressing her discomfort with the technology. 'I am not an impartial voice in SAG's fight against AI,' Zelda, 35, wrote. 'I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad.' 'I've already heard AI used to get his 'voice' to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings,' she continued. 'Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance.' Lawrence was just a pre-teen when he played Williams' son in 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire, and their relationship clearly made a lasting impression. At the first annual '90s Con in 2022, Lawrence shared how Williams — who struggled with substance abuse — warned him about the dangers of drugs during filming. '[Williams] was very serious. He was like, 'You know when you come to my trailer and you see me like that?'' Lawrence shared. 'He's like, 'That's the reason why. And now I'm fighting for the rest of my life because I spent 10 years doing something very stupid every day. Do not do it.' I stayed away from it because of him.' In an earlier interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence reflected on two key lessons Williams taught him: the importance of compassion, and not judging others without walking in their shoes. 'He really quantified what it was to be a real artist for me in the sense that he was definitely,' Lawrence said, 'and I worked with some great people, and he was definitely the most brilliant artist I've ever worked with.'
