Stephen Colbert's ‘Late Show' is being cancelled, CBS cites ‘financial decision'
Colbert shared the news with his audience Thursday at New York's Ed Sullivan Theater, saying he learned Wednesday night that after a decade on air, 'next year will be our last season.'
'The network will be ending The Late Show in May,' Colbert said as the crowd erupted in boos. 'Yeah, I share your feelings. It's not just the end of our show but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS.'
The 61-year-old comic said he is not being replaced as host and said the entire show 'is just going away.'
'I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theatre to call home,' Colbert said. 'And of course I'm grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night in here, out there, all around the world, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.'
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Colbert said he is also grateful to share the stage with The Late Show's band and said he's 'extraordinarily, deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here.'
'We get to do this show for each other every day, all day. And I've had the pleasure and responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years,' he added.
'And let me tell you, it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it and it's a job that I'm looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months. It's going to be fun.'
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George Cheeks, Amy Reisenbach and David Stapf, three top Paramount and CBS executives, praised Colbert's show as 'a staple of the nation's zeitgeist' in a statement that said the cancellation 'is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.'
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'Our admiration, affection, and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult,' the statement continued. 'With much gratitude, we look forward to honoring Stephen and celebrating the show over the next 10 months alongside its millions of fans and viewers.'
Many celebrities took to the comment section to celebrate the show and the host after Colbert announced the news of the show's cancellation.
'The greatest to ever do it,' Jon Batiste, the former bandleader for The Late Show, wrote.
'My admiration and appreciation for you is bottomless. Excited to see what other brilliance you put into the world,' director Judd Apatow wrote.
'I am so upset about this. I need more information. We love you,' journalist Katie Couric added.
'I am extremely sad. I adore you, Stephen,' actor Rachel Zegler wrote.
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Colbert took over The Late Show in 2015 after becoming a big name in comedy and news satire working with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and hosting The Colbert Report.
The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert gaining viewers so far this year and winning his timeslot among broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert's Late Show landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show. It won a Peabody Award in 2021.
David Letterman began hosting The Late Show in 1993. When Colbert took over, he welcomed musicians, movie stars and politicians to his couch.
On Monday, Colbert condemned Paramount Global's settlement of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes story as a 'big fat bribe' during his first show back from a vacation.
Colbert's 'bribe' reference was to the pending sale of Paramount to Skydance Media, which needs Trump administration approval. Critics of the deal that ended Trump's lawsuit over the newsmagazine's editing of its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris suggested it was primarily to clear a hurdle to that sale.
Colbert followed The Daily Show host Jon Stewart's attack of the deal one week earlier. Stewart works for Comedy Central, also owned by Paramount, making the two comics the most visible internal critics of the US$16 million settlement that was announced on July 1.
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A handful of media reports in the past two weeks have speculated that Skydance boss David Ellison might try to curry favor with Trump by eliminating the comics' jobs if the sale is approved. A representative for Ellison did not immediately return a message for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
— with files from The Associated Press
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THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account or Sign in without password View more offers Article content Here at the Avalon Resort, a self-styled 'clothing-optional' retreat two hours west of D.C., the dress code requires no type of dress (or shirt or pants) at all. Article content tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or At this West Virginia nudist resort, everyone has skin in the game Back to video tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Play Video Article content 'This is about finding a way to enjoy life and I enjoy being nude,' said Butts (yes, that's his real name), a widower who drove last weekend from Pennsylvania with his girlfriend for a gala celebrating Avalon's 30th anniversary. 'This is freedom,' he said, his smile befitting someone who had just won something akin to the jackpot. The regimented constraints of conventional life often inspire a deep yearning for liberation, the form of which can be as logistically challenging as, say, parachuting out of an airplane, or as prosaic as channeling your inner Pavarotti in the shower – neighbors be damned. Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content At Avalon, 250 rolling acres that include streets with names like 'Bare Buns Boulevard,' freedom means moseying about in nothing more than gobs of sunscreen and embracing a lifestyle that dates back nearly 100 years in the United States and longer in Europe. Feeling a tad self-conscious? Not to worry, say Avalon's members, largely an older crowd that includes people like the ever-sunny Linda Keesee, 74, a retired naval intelligence officer who bought a condo at the resort years ago with her husband, Bill, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who died in 2022. Photo by Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post On her kitchen wall is a framed photo of a happy moment – Bill at their outdoor grill, his middle-aged body covered only by a red apron. A second photo, this one on a side table, also captures Bill at the grill, this time without the apron. Travel Time Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Sign Up By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Article content Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 'I always tell people when they come to Avalon that Barbie and Ken don't live here,' said Keesee, in a sundress, at least for the moment, as she reclined in a comfortable chair in her condo. 'It is people of all shapes and sizes and colors just enjoying the freedom of it.' 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Photo by Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post 'Without clothes, everyone's the same' Avalon offers many of the staples found at any scenic retreat, including pickleball courts, pools, hot tubs, saunas, camp sites, and hiking and jogging trails. But there are differences – and not just that the pants-less far outnumber the pants. For one, the library has, along with a selection of fiction and nonfiction, a shelf devoted to 'nudism' and includes a handful of nude photo books (spare reading glasses, conveniently kept in a basket, are also available for anyone in need). Advertisement 7 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content For another, the resort offers what it refers to as the 'Nudsino,' a room featuring several slot machines, an amenity that Avalon's founders, Phyllis and Patrick Gaffney, himself a former Pentagon computer analyst, came up with years ago to lure visitors (Avalon's membership, after peaking at well over 500, sank to 100 during the pandemic and is now at just over 225). The Nudsino is in a building known as the Bare Barn, the main gathering place where volunteers were busy decorating for the celebration. The walls are lined with dozens of photos of current and former members, everyone au naturale. A preponderance are couples, including Nevin Paradise, 71, and his wife Lynne, 77, who have been vacationing at nudist spots for decades. Advertisement 8 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 'Boy, does it cut down on the packing,' said Lynne, a former flight attendant. As she spoke, she was sitting in the back seat of their car, wearing only a baseball cap and a light colored see-through cover-up, while her husband, naked at the wheel, took a reporter and photographer on a tour. Over here was a verdant community garden that members tend by themselves; over there, a grove of apple and pear trees planted in memory of nudists come and gone. Up past Running Bare Boulevard was an RV where the owners – he, a federal IT guy; she, a retired State Department instructor – displayed a pair of nude garden gnomes. Nearby was another trailer, the placard out front declaring, 'Life is Short, Party Naked.' The Paradises (yes, also their actual name) own a sprawling home they built in Somerset, a development adjoining Avalon where a sign announces that it's a 'clothing optional community' and asks, 'Please Respect Our Privacy.' Just inside the Paradises' front door, on a living room wall, are his-and-her faux-bronze reliefs, formed from plaster casts of the couple's bare torsos. Advertisement 9 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Photo by Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post Nevin, a retired United Airlines maintenance manager, said one aspect of Avalon culture he appreciates is that people are not judgmental. No one feels obligated to ask the perfunctory get-acquainted standby, 'What do you do?,' a fact that he and others attribute to the absence of clothing and the status that a designer shirt or dress can convey. 'Here, without the clothes, everyone is the same,' Nevin said. 'We're all in this together. Everyone is accepted.' Well, not everyone, actually. Those who don't follow a certain code of nudist conduct can find themselves hearing from management. 'You can look, but you can't stare,' said Sharon Leipfert, 72, a nurse and frequent visitor from Winchester, Virginia, reciting one main rule. Advertisement 10 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Another: You can hug but your hands better not roam, as was the case after a man once asked Leipfert to dance. 'The first thing he said was, 'I hope this is okay,'' she said, demonstrating how the man's hand landed and lingered on her breast. 'I said, 'No it is not!' He was asked to leave. It's usually the new people who get in trouble.' Public sex is a no-no at Avalon, as is the taking of photos in common areas. In the event that anyone becomes, say, a little too happy to be there, Avalon's website recommends rolling over on one's stomach or covering up with a towel 'until the 'situation' subsides.' 'A true nudist will only look you in the eye,' said Steve Snyder, 74, a retired maintenance mechanic who cooks and tends bar at Avalon. But human nature is what it is, he acknowledged, and eyes have been known to stray. Advertisement 11 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content 'I mean, how can you stop from looking?' he asked. Photo by Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post Back to nature Linda Weber, president of an organization called the American Association of Nude Recreation, is on the phone from California where she acknowledged, in response to a reporter's question, that she was naked, as she always is when she's home and not circulating in what she refers to as the 'textile world.' 'It's hard to get me into clothes,' said the retired insurance company sales manager. 'I was born nude, and I wish I could have stayed that way. Then they threw that diaper on me and the indoctrination began.' As AANR's leader, Weber is trying to ensure that future generations embrace nudism, a lifestyle historians trace to Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 'It was a reaction to industrialization and urbanization,' said Brian Hoffman, the author of 'Naked: A Cultural History of American Nudism.' 'It was a back-to-nature thing.' Advertisement 12 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Around 1930, a man named Kurt Barthal brought the movement to the United States, where it grew in popularity, surging in the 1960s and 1970s, when youth culture revolted against the materialism and conformity embraced by their parents' generation. At its peak in the 1990s, Weber said, AANR's membership roll exceeded 50,000 and it was affiliated with more than 200 organizations, including nude resorts, nude cruises and nude clubs. More recently, membership has fallen to 28,000, a decline that seems predictable in an age of TMI, when 'the internet and TV is so saturated with nakedness, it's not a big deal anymore,' Hoffman said. 'We're seeing that people are aging out,' Weber said. 'It's a boomer crowd and we're trying to attract younger people to take our place.' Advertisement 13 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content AANR has turned to TikTok and Instagram to promote what Weber refers to as 'body camaraderie,' although she also hopes activities like nude hiking and nude bowling will spark interest. 'It's very wholesome,' she said. 'There's nothing where your mom would say, 'Whoa, what are you doing here?'' Photo by Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post Toasting 30 years The time was now 7 p.m. and the Bare Barn was filling up with people in various states of undress, everyone here to celebrate Avalon's 30 years. The crowd cheered as the Gaffneys, both now 78, stood beneath a disco ball holding glasses of champagne as they toasted their early investors, employees and members. 'This is very emotional for me,' said Patrick, his attire limited to a pair of sandals, as he stood alongside his wife, who wore just a skirt. Advertisement 14 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content A woman dressed only in a light-up tiara applauded, as did the man wearing next to nothing between his cowboy hat and shoes, along with another in formal tails, a white collar and no pants. And here was Butts, 71, who used to work as a quality assurance professional, positively aglow in a top hat, white gloves, black bow tie and bottomless underwear he bought specially for the occasion. As a (fully clothed) band played a rich blend of blues, country and gospel, and everyone danced, Butts recalled one of his last conversations with Marlene, his wife who died a few years ago and who was not into the nudist thing. 'She said, 'I want you to be happy, I want you find someone and be happy,'' he said. Not only has Butts found that someone, but they're planning to get married and host their wedding celebration at the Avalon. Clothing optional, naturally. Article content Share this article in your social network Read Next
