Latest news with #late night show
Fox News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Sean Hannity: Democrats' delusion is 'off the charts'
Fox News host Sean Hannity dissects Democrats' 'meltdowns' over Stephen Colbert's late night show cancellation and outlines the party's 'dumpster fire' on 'Hannity.'
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Keith Olbermann pours cold water on claims Colbert was fired for political reasons
Ex-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has weighed in on whether Stephen Colbert was canceled by CBS for political reasons, throwing cold water on the theory he was axed for his criticism of Trump. "Sorry. That's not what happened here. If it had, they wouldn't be keeping him on until next MAY," Olbermann said in a post on X. CBS announced they'd canceled "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Thursday, stating that the over 30-year-long franchise would come to an end in May 2026 with no subsequent host taking over following Colbert's departure. The show was previously hosted by David Letterman from 1992-2015. Olbermann authored the post in response to an X user who posted that Colbert's firing was a sign that the United States had descended into fascism. "We are officially at the 'pulling comedians off the air who criticize our dear leader' phase of fascism," the user posted over a picture of the late night host. Following the network's announcement of Colbert's ouster, numerous left-wing politicians and journalists spoke out, alleging that the talk show host was fired for political reasons, speculating that axing Colbert – a fierce critic of President Trump – was an attempt to placate White House officials amid a pending merger between CBS' parent company Paramount and Skydance. "CBS's billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance. Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he's fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO," Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders posted on X. "If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better," Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote on X. CBS settled with President Trump after he sued the network alleging election interference over a "60 Minutes" interview with his 2024 opponent former Vice President Kamala Harris which he alleged was deceptively edited. A clip from the interview, in which Harris was asked about the war in Gaza, was released on "Face the Nation" prior to the "60 Minutes" broadcast and featured the former VP delivering an answer that was widely derided as "word salad." When the interview was finally broadcast, a different, more concise response was swapped in its place. CBS, however, claimed that "The Late Show's" cancellation was due to financial reasons, saying the show lost some $40 million a year. Colbert is No. 1 in the late night timeslot among network talk show hosts (though he regularly comes behind Fox's Gutfeld), averaging around 2.4 million viewers per episode. Overall viewership for late night talk shows has steadily declined in recent years, leading to a decrease in total ad revenues. Colbert was tapped to host the "Late Show" following Letterman's retirement after he hosted the widely acclaimed "Colbert Report" on Comedy Central. Upon taking the reins of the franchise, Colbert eschewed the well-known formula of hosting a show that appeals to the broadest swath of Americans, opting instead for a highly partisan, Trump-critical program. Fox News Digital has reached out to CBS for comment. When former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Colbert popped champagne on air and danced, proclaiming his joy in the election result. "Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Biden did it! He's our next president! I'm so happy!" he proclaimed, adding that he cried tears of joy upon learning Trump would no longer be president.
CBC
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
The political and cultural gravity of cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Social Sharing Last night, comedian Stephen Colbert told his TV audience that his eponymous late night show will end its run in May 2026. The show's network, CBS, cites financial concerns as the reason to cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. However, media analysts and politicians speculate that Colbert's criticism of President Donald Trump may have more to do with this decision than money. This past Monday, Colbert had criticized CBS parent company Paramount Global for settling a $16 million lawsuit with Trump. Colbert called the settlement a "big fat bribe," as Paramount needs the Trump administration's approval to facilitate a merger between Paramount and Skydance Media. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud speaks with film and TV critics Dylan Green, Rad Simonpillai and Alison Willmore to discuss what the cancellation of The Late Show means for the TV and political landscape. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion on the new film Eddington and the viral "Coldplay couple," listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: The thing that really struck me about this story, Alison, is that the idea that Colbert himself gets named as one of the things that is making Skydance nervous. Because there's a lot of reporting that suggests that Skydance is like, "Hey, Stephen Colbert is quite critical of Trump politics in general." And that could be a reason to maybe, at a certain point, Trump having some kind of frustration and blocking the merger. He does have that power. He has interfered before or attempted to block a merger before. What are you seeing in terms of your reaction to this story? Alison: What's disturbing to me — there are many things that are disturbing about this — but I think in particular, the way in which CBS and Paramount are just one of many large media and tech companies who have essentially paid out to the Trump administration in different ways. ABC also did, I think it was a $15 million settlement over the George Stephanopoulos thing. Meta has paid out. Amazon figured out a way to pay millions and millions of dollars for a Melania documentary that we have yet to see. All of these things, it's hard not to read them for — whatever justification that each one gives — as a means of, yes, doing something that looks a lot like a "big fat bribe" to placate the Trump administration. These are the largest media companies we have and they're immediately bending the knee to the administration. It just gives you that sense that there is no space for even the pretense of a critical voice in any of these large media corporations. In part because Trump has proven so prone to be punitive, but also because none of them seem to want to stand up in any way. They're all immediately saying, "This is the way the wind is blowing, at least for the next few years, and we're going to follow it." That's depressing. It's not a great sign. Elamin: Your reactions to this entire story, Rad, what do you see? Rad: It's hard to take the financial reasons as the excuse, even though there's a lot of legitimacy to that, because late night in general has been suffering and people don't tune in for cable, and we've seen other shows fall for this very reason. But when you say financial reason, I mean, that $16 million settlement is a financial reason. The fact that you have this voice on your platform that is critical of that, that is calling it a "bribe" to the Trump administration to make sure that this sale goes through, this merger with Skydance. That's obviously the thing that everyone is honing in on. If you're thinking about how desperately Paramount wants a sale with Skydance to go through. You think about: what would Skydance want out of a media company? Skydance, their CEO, David Ellison, I mean, this guy's a Trump supporter. This guy's courting [conservative journalist] Bari Weiss to either take over her Free Press organization [her news outlet] or to have her become an editorial overseer in terms of CBS. The idea of Bari Weiss and Stephen Colbert existing at the same media platform, that does not cohere. Elamin: Colbert is far and away the number one show in that slot. He's way ahead of Jimmy Kimmel, who's number two in that slot. And he's the only late night show that's been growing its audience, according to Nielsen ratings. Dylan, does this surprise you, reading all of this? Dylan: Not really. Him and Jon Stewart were pioneers of that particular type of satirical newscasting. And then Colbert transitions into something that he's not playing the character no more. But he has that experience and he has that built-in audience and he's got a lot of power, in that sense. So it shook me to see that they were like, "We're not just replacing something, the whole show is leaving." They're very much sending a statement …. But considering his [Colbert's] reputation, it makes perfect sense to me that they're using him as an opportunity to just be like, "Y'all are next."
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
The end of Colbert's ‘Late Show' has implications beyond late-night TV
The facts are these: The highest-rated show on late night was nominated for an Emmy on Tuesday. On Thursday, Paramount/CBS announced its cancellation. Stephen Colbert announced at the Thursday evening taping of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' that he'd found out, only the night before, that his show would be canceled at the end of the season, in May 2026, and that no one would be replacing him. 'It's the end of 'The Late Show' on CBS,' he said. 'This is all just going away.'
