CBS ends Stephen Colbert’s show and entire “Late Show” franchise

Is the move politically motivated? Colbert was a frequent Trump critic

In a stunning move, CBS announced Thursday it was ending The Late Show franchise after 33 years and getting out of the late-night business entirely, claiming the decision was made due to “financial decisions.”

Current CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert announced before The Late Show began on Thursday.

During a taping of “The Late Show” on Thursday, Stephen Colbert broke the news to his audience that the show will be cancelled by CBS in May 2026.

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“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,” CBS said in a statement, which was nowhere to be found on Paramount’s Press Express website. “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.”

The cancellation comes despite Colbert being the top-rated late-night show, with an average of 2.5 million viewers, ahead of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and NBC’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. In Chicago, the shows also competes with WGN-TV’s nightly GN Sports wrap-up show. However, late-night ratings have eroded over the years as younger viewers opt for streaming and social media options, and older viewers skip late-night altogether as they are going to bed early – something that’s been apparent since 2010 as local stations started rolling out 4:30 a.m. newscasts. 

But this also comes after Colbert ripped into Paramount executives after agreeing to settle with the Trump Administration for $16 million over claims CBS manipulated a 60 Minutes interview featuring Kamala Harris, with Trump claiming they edited her comments to gain a political advantage. Colbert remarked Monday on his show that the settlement was a “big fat bribe”.

The sale of CBS parent Paramount Global to Skydance has yet to close as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and his agency haven’t approved the deal. Skydance executives have been annoyed with Colbert and Daily Show host Jon Stewart over their jokes about the 47th President, as Skydance CEO David Ellison’s father Larry (who is the founder of Oracle) is a huge Trump supporter and was recently spotted with him at a UFC event in Newark, N.J., a few weeks ago. The cancellation of The Late Show raised immediate speculation that the decision may be politically motivated – something Paramount has denied.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” CBS continued to say. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also battling Paramount over a host of issues, including streaming rights to their show and claimed interference from executives. South Park’s season premiere was delayed until July 23 and might be delayed again as the duo has retained a lawyer for a possible lawsuit.

In March, CBS announced it was cancelling After Midnight after two seasons, citing production costs and host Taylor Tomlinson’s decision to exit the show to return to the stand-up circuit full-time. The decision to replace Midnight with reruns of Byron Allen’s low-rated Comics Unleashed faced criticism from media observers.

After two decades of having little success in the daypart with everything from The Pat Sajak Show to Crimetime After Primetime to The CBS Late Night Movie (which featured reruns of off-network sitcoms and dramas and the occasional bad movie) – not to mention getting pre-empted by affiliates, CBS hit a home run in 1993 when it signed David Letterman away from NBC after he was passed over for the Tonight Show gig for Jay Leno and named it The Late Show, a name originating at Fox in 1986 for Joan Rivers’ unsuccessful effort. David Letterman retired in 2015, and CBS appointed Stephen Colbert, a Second City alum, to take over. Colbert had previously parodied a conservative talk show host on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

Last year, Colbert’s show made their first-ever trip to Chicago when the Democratic National Convention came to the United Center.

CBS did not name a replacement for The Late Show, but the network made it clear it will not be another talk show. It remains to be seen what would fill the daypart as Comics Unleashed is on a one-year deal. It’s not likely CBS would hand the time back to affiliates, but returning to the CBS Late Night era of off-network dramas, sitcoms, and movies may not be out of the question. Jimmy Kimmel’s contract at ABC is also up in 2026, and he may walk away after 23 years on the job, leaving The Tonight Show the last show standing in the daypart, like it was in the 1970s when CBS and ABC didn’t even bother to field any viable late-night programming.

It is also not known what will happen to the Ed Sullivan Theater, which was home to Letterman’s and Colbert’s show. Open since 1927 and renamed after Suillvan in 1967, it was home to his Sunday night show from 1953 to 1971 and afterward, was home to game shows, Howard Cosell’s short-lived Saturday night variety show, and the sitcom Kate & Allie. The building became a New York City landmark in January 1988. 

2026 will be an interesting time for linear TV strip programming. With Colbert out and Kimmel’s future unknown, we could also see a major daytime shakeup, as Kelly Clarkson could leave her NBCUniversal-syndicated daytime show. The contracts of Tamron Hall, Steve Wilkos, Jennifer Hudson, and Drew Barrymore are also up next season. This website has documented the decline of linear TV since 2017, and the bottom has yet to be reached.

As for the political implications, if this turns out to be related to any effort to silence Colbert or Stewart to curry favor with the Trump administration, this would be sad and infuriating, proving Paramount’s relationship with Trump is more important than those of their talent or employees. This also devalues CBS, as if you are a person of talent, the Tiffany network may not be your first stop if you are looking to pitch content. Late-night hosts have traditionally made fun of their bosses, such as when Letterman referred to General Electric executives as “weasels” during his Late Night days at NBC. 

Last year, this space ripped CBS and its Paramount Global ownership for its decades-long incompetence dating back to the ownership of  Larry Tisch, comparing the network unfavorably to the Chicago White Sox, “Church Of Tisch” references and all, wondering if there is a difference between the two horribly-run organizations. It’s like if Jerry Reinsdorf made this decision to dump Stephen Colbert – after all, he did fire Jason Benetti two years ago, and look what White Sox fans received as a replacement.

If one thing we Chicagoans know is that good talent gets replaced by schlock, so enjoy those Comics Unleashed reruns or those ass Tubi movies CBS may run in its place. Maybe Tubi will cast John Schriffen or the no-talent hack who plays Georgie on that unfunny Thursday night sitcom to star in one; it suits The Church Of Tisch just fine. 

It’s disgusting, but what can you do when you are at the whims of a fascist President and his FCC Chairman? America made its choice last November, and one whose populace decided our freedom of speech isn’t as important as we thought.