On Thursday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host announced that CBS will be ending the show after this season, which wraps in May.
“It’s not just the end our our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” Colbert told the audience.
The announcement came just days after Colbert openly criticized Paramount for settling a lawsuit with President Trump. The lawsuit, which claimed that a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris interfered with the 2024 election, was settled for $16 million as Paramount is seeking federal approval for a merger with Skydance Media.
In a statement reported by NPR, the network said the decision to cut the show was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Before Colbert made the announcement about his show being cancelled, Jon Stewart shared thoughts about his own late night show on his podcast, The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart. He told the audience that he hasn’t been in contact with anyone at Skydance and is in the dark about what the new owners will do when it comes to programming.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything from them,” Stewart said in response to a listener question. “They haven’t called me and said like ‘Don’t get too comfortable in that office, Stewart.’ But let me tell you something, I’ve been kicked out of shittier establishments than that. We’ll land on our feet.”
He continued by saying he believes in the value the show brings to the network, but reiterated that everything is up in the air when it comes to the future of programming. “I’d like to think we bring enough value to the property, like if they’re looking at it as purely a real estate transaction, I think we bring a lot of value,” he said. “But that may not be their consideration. I don’t know, they may sell the whole fucking place for parts. I just don’t know. And we’ll deal with it when we do.”