Trump may have 'just handed an Emmy' to Stephen Colbert, industry reporter says
CBS announced last Thursday that it would cancel "The Late Show" next May at the end of its broadcast season. Though CBS and Paramount clarified that the choice to cancel the series was "purely a financial decision," and it's been reported that the show loses CBS $40 million a year, many liberal commentators have pointed to Paramount's recent lawsuit settlement with Trump and an upcoming merger with Skydance as the reason.
For his part, Trump celebrated the decision on Truth Social shortly after the news was announced, claiming Colbert's "talent was even less than his ratings."
Colbert fired back against Trump on his show Monday night.
"How dare you, sir?" Colbert responded. "Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go f--- yourself."
Hollywood Reporter editor Steven Zeitchik argued that the "Late Show" franchise ending, combined with Trump's jabs, could motivate academy members to finally award Colbert's iteration of the late-night comedy show after nearly a decade.
"Whether the president actually had a hand in the cancellation matters less than the fact that Emmys voters see a partisan battle in the firing," Zeitchik wrote. "An Emmy won't change public policy on immigration and Medicaid. But it's one of the few ways liberal Hollywood can stick it to the leader they loathe."
"The Late Show" is currently nominated for best Outstanding Talk Series against "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers." "The Late Show" under Colbert has been nominated for an Emmy 31 times since his run as host began in 2015.
Zeitchik added that Colbert winning an Emmy could give the anti-Trump comedian an even bigger platform to attack the president on a personal level.
"In a grand irony, if Trump's stance does give Colbert the Emmy the president will have enabled the host to win an honor that has saltily eluded him. ('The Apprentice' went 0 for 8.) And if Colbert did finally win for this show, he would gain an acceptance-speech platform of some 7 million TV viewers, and millions more online, all on and courtesy of the network that just canceled him. That's the thing about punching someone with a TV megaphone — they can punch back," Zeitchik wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for comment.
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