Stephen Colbert declares himself a 'martyr' and warns the 'gloves are off' in searing response to Trump
The comedian's decade-long run as the host of The Late Show will end next May, with many speculating that the top-rated show was canceled because it was losing tens of millions of dollars.
Others - including long-time comedy partner Jon Stewart on his Daily Show Monday - suggested Paramount - who owns both CBS and Comedy Central - were doing it to appease Trump, who is often on the end of Colbert's quips.
Colbert, who briefly addressed the move Friday, devoted much of his show to the controversy, eventually bringing on almost every other late-night talk show host, Adam Sandler and even Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The 61-year-old comic opened by saying ' cancel culture has gone too far' and then joked that now that the show is ending, he can say whatever he feels.
Colbert said sarcastically of Paramount: 'They made one mistake, they left me alive! For the next ten months, the gloves are off!'
The Late Show host referenced Trump's post to Truth Social over the weekend, when the president wrote he 'absolutely love[s] that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.'
The comic immediately then turned to an 'Eloquence Cam' and said: 'Go f*** yourself.'
The comic turned to an 'Eloquence Cam' and said 'Go f*** yourself' to Trump in response to the president's glee in his cancellation
He then referenced Trump stating in the same post: 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.'
Colbert replied: 'Nope, no, no. Absolutely not. Kimmel, I am the martyr. There's only room for one on this cross. And the view is fantastic from up here. I can see your house!'
He also said that cancellation he could finally admit what he felt about the president.
In contrast to his often hysterical anti-Trump monologues, he dryly, quietly said: 'I don't care for him. Doesn't seem to have the skill set to be president. Just not a good fit, that's all.'
He addressed his bosses at CBS - who he said 'have always been great partners' - before talking about Paramount's decision to cancel the show which he took over from David Letterman in 2015.
'How could it be a purely financial decision if The Late Show's is number onein ratings? A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff's parents and spouses.'
Colbert's axing came just days after he sniped at CBS bosses for settling with Trump, branding the deal a 'big fat bribe.'
He referenced a story from The New York Post saying the show lost $40-$50million last year, though some have suggested its as high as $100million.
'I could see us losing $24 million but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million, oh...' he quipped, referencing the amount the company settled with Trump for over his 60 Minutes lawsuit.
He went back to bashing Trump and the recent news accusing him of writing a letter to Jeffrey Epstein for his birthday.
'I'll have more to say about all this after the commercial break. The only other story is a small one... the president is buddies with a pedophile.'
In the show's second segment, Colbert pulled out every name from his celebrity address book.
He brought out Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and long-time parody songwriter 'Weird Al' Yankovic.
The show then parodied the recent Coldplay kiss cam scandal as the pair performed a take on the band's hit 'Viva la Vida' with Yankovic's trademark accordion in tow.
He then cut to various famous people in pairs on the 'kiss cam,' including CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and Bravo stalwart Andy Cohen, who pretended to make out.
Adam Sandler and Happy Gilmore co-star Christopher McDonald, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and John Oliver and Jon Stewart also appeared.
Puck journalist Matthew Belloni revealed Colbert's astonishing lack of profitability Friday, hours after CNN first broke the news that the show was canceled because it was in the red.
Belloni outlined how The Late Show - whose cancelation was announced Thursday - costs $100m a year to produce, with Colbert, 61, getting paid between $15 million and $20 million a year to host.
Colbert beats ABC and NBC rivals Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon in the ratings, but that still wasn't enough to save him.
Late night shows have slumped in profitability in recent years as viewers shun the format in favor of streaming services or watching content on their phones.
Advertiser revenue has slumped sharply even in the last three years, Puck reported, making it harder to pull Colbert's show out of the red.
Colbert was reported to be 'not angry, actually' about his cancelation and was chatting with his staff in a 'matter-of-fact' way before Thursday's show, Puck reported.
Colbert, who will broadcast his final show in May 2026, was first informed his show was on the chopping block around July 4, it is claimed. Paramount Co-CEO George Cheeks made the decision, Puck reported.
He the went on vacation, giving bosses at CBS time to plot behind his back, CNN reported.
Colbert had news of his cancelation confirmed Thursday.
He moved to share it as quickly as possible so that his staff would not learn of their impending unemployment via leaks to the press.
All three major late night hosts - Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon - have become notorious for their regular rants about President Trump, which many viewers have complained are boring and off-putting.
But Belloni said he didn't believe the famously anti-MAGA Colbert was axed to appease Donald Trump, who recently won a $15 million payout from CBS after suing them over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris he said was deceptively edited.
The axing of Colbert has delighted Trump, who posted about it on his TruthSocial network earlier today.
Colbert's ouster could also make it easier for CBS parent company Paramount's efforts to merge with media company Skydance in a deal that must be approved by Trump's Federal Communications Commission.
The Late Show launched in 1993 under David Letterman to compete with longtime late night juggernaut The Tonight Show.
Colbert took over from Letterman in 2015 after his retirement.
More than three decades later, CBS's entry into the late night sphere sits at the top, with second-best Jimmy Kimmel Live! raking in an average of 1.772 million viewers.
Colbert, by comparison, collects an average of 2.417 million.
Colbert - who once played a conservative character on Comedy Central's satirical late night program The Colbert Report - often aired jokes at the conservative's expense.
Trump celebrated the news of the show's cancellation as a result.
'I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,' he wrote in a Friday Truth Social post.
'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert,' he added, before talking up right-wing Fox New star Greg Gutfeld.
'[He's] better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show,' Trump added, referring to Jimmy Fallon.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
30 minutes ago
- Reuters
Japan says $550 billion package in trade deal could finance Taiwanese chipmaker in US
TOKYO, July 26 (Reuters) - Japan's $550 billion investment package agreed in this week's U.S. tariff deal could help finance a Taiwanese firm building semiconductor plants in the U.S., Japan's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Saturday. Japan agreed to the sweeping U.S.-bound investment initiative, which includes equity, loans and guarantees, in exchange for lower tariffs on its exports to the U.S. However, the structure of the scheme remains unclear. "Japan, the United States, and like-minded countries are working together to build supply chains in sectors critical to economic security," Akazawa told public broadcaster NHK. To that end, he said projects eligible for financing under the package are not limited to U.S. or Japanese firms. "For example, if a Taiwanese chipmaker builds a plant in the U.S. and uses Japanese components or tailors its products to meet Japanese needs, that's fine too," he said, without specifying companies. The U.S. is significantly reliant on Taiwan's TSMC ( opens new tab for advanced chip manufacturing, raising economic security concerns due to geographic proximity to China. TSMC announced plans for a $100 billion U.S. investment with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in March, on top of $65 billion pledged for three plants in the state of Arizona, one of which is up and running. Japan will use state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) for the investments. A recent law revision has enabled JBIC to finance foreign companies deemed critical to Japan's supply chains. Akazawa told NHK that equity investment would account for just about 1-2% of the $550 billion, suggesting that the bulk will come in the form of loans and guarantees. When asked about the White House statement that the U.S. would retain 90% of the profits from the package, he clarified that the figure refers only to returns on equity investment, which would represent a small fraction of the total. While Japan initially hoped to secure half of the returns, a loss from the concession on the profit-sharing would be marginal compared to the roughly 10 trillion yen ($67.72 billion) in tariff costs that could be avoided under the deal, he said. He added that Japan aims to deploy the $550 billion investments during Trump's current term. ($1 = 147.6600 yen)
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Donald Trump claims on R&A's Turnberry spending are ‘well wide of the mark'
Donald Trump's claims that the R&A has invested 'millions of dollars' in updating Turnberry's broadcasting and communications facilities in preparations for The Open returning to his Ayrshire links are understood to be well wide of the mark. Sources insist that, in complete contrast to the US President's comments, the R&A has not done any such work on cabling since a small amount was laid in 2009. Trump made the assertion when landing in Scotland on Friday night for his five-day visit. 'The infrastructure of the course is good,' he told The Telegraph when asked about the R&A repeatedly stating that substantial amounts of work would need to be done on logistics before it would consider taking the major to Turnberry again. 'In fact, the Royal and Ancient [sic], I don't know you're aware of this ... they spent a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably into the millions of dollars. And they've laid all the wire for television and for electricity under the holes of Turnberry, so that when the Open gets there, they have it all done.' The R&A declined to comment on Saturday, but it is understood that a little cable was laid in and around the 18th and the [fans] village in 2009 and nothing has been done since then. What has been laid wouldn't even be usable now according to sources and did not come at significant cost. Trump has lobbied for the Open to return to the course after he dished out his own millions to improve the layout and the hotel that is on the property. Yet while the former R&A chief executive, Martin Slumbers, declared 'we will not be taking events there until we're comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf', his successor, Mark Darbon, has indicated that the main stumbling block is not Trump's character or his penchant for stealing the spotlight, but the remoteness of the resort he bought for $60m in 2014. 'We love the golf course but we've got some big logistical challenges there,' Darbon said at last week's Open. 'You see the scale of their set-up here [Royal Portrush] and we've got some work to do on the road, rail and accommodation infrastructure around Turnberry. We've explicitly not taken it out of our pool of venues but we'd need to address those logistical challenges should we return.' Darbon met earlier this year with Eric Trump, the President's son who runs the family's portfolio of upmarket golf clubs, and informed him of the scale of development needed and stressed that Government support would be necessary. Regardless of any Whitehall pressure, it is highly unlikely the R&A will budge on this thorny issue. It relies on the revenue from its major to govern and develop amateur and recreational golf in 146 countries internationally and while Portrush last week attracted a crowd of 280,000, only 123,000 showed up at Turnberry the last time it played host 16 years ago. That could lead to a draining shortfall and the feeling in the sport's corridors of power is that even if the green light was given for a new road and a new station – not to mention a few hotels – Turnberry still might have to wait at least another decade. And Trump's wildly inaccurate statements will hardly assist in whetting the R&A's appetite to return.
Reuters
30 minutes ago
- Reuters
US denies entry to Venezuelan Little League players, sporting body says
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - The United States has refused entry to a Venezuelan Little League team that had been due to compete in this year's senior league World Series baseball tournament in South Carolina, according to a statement from Little League International. Cacique Mara Little League was unable to obtain the necessary entry visas, a development that was "extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes," the organization said in a statement. A Mexican team that finished second in a regional tournament will compete in its place so that the tournament may go forward, it added. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump last month issued a proclamation barring entry to people from 12 countries and restricting entry by nationals of seven others, including Venezuela. In the Latin America region, Cacique Mara had finished with a record of 5-0, according to Little League. The 2025 Senior League Baseball World Series will be held from July 26 to August 2 in Easley, South Carolina.
