In the U.S., comedy has been stifled and strangled by our sensitive and litigious government officials for years, suffocating beneath the weight of woke. But with Our Great Leader Donald Trump’s return to power, comedy is legal again! In fact, comedy is soooo back that a giant company (probably) just canceled the most-watched late-night show on television, so that an even bigger company could get acquired by an even bigger company, without pissing off Trump. America? It’s great again!
“Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season; the network will be ending The Late Show in May,” he said, to boos from the audience. “Yeah, I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
CBS insisted the decision was purely financial, and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” But it’s very suspicious timing—and probably bullshit.
The network’s parent company, Paramount Global, is currently trying to get the Federal Trade Commission to approve an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance. Trump sued Paramount in October after 60 Minutes aired an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In July, Paramount settled the lawsuit to the tune of $16 million—which critics believe was a move to help with the merger. Colbert had a more apt word for it: “big fat bribe.”
“This settlement is for a nuisance lawsuit Trump filed claiming that 60 Minutes deceptively edited their interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris last fall. Paramount knows they could have easily fought it, because in their words, the lawsuit was ‘completely without merit,” Colbert began his monologue Monday night. “Now unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, the Paramount settlement did not include an apology—that’s good—instead the corporation released a statement where they said, ‘You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity, you may however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash.”
“Now I believe this kind of complicated settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles, it’s ‘big fat bribe,'” he continued. “Because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.”
The show, which premiered in 1993 with host David Letterman, is the most-watched late-night show of 2025, averaging 2.42 million viewers a night in Q2. (The second most-watched is Jimmy Kimmel with 1.77 million viewers.) According to Latenighter, The Late Show is also the only show this year whose audience grew from Q1 to Q2.
“America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted after Colbert’s announcement. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was a guest on Colbert Thursday night, also tweeted, “The public deserves to know. And deserves better,” after his interview aired.
The Late Show will end in May 2026. Colbert has never been filtered, but, if nothing else, I can’t wait to see what already-canceled Colbert has to say now about this god-forsaken country and the idiot currently in charge.
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