Stephen Colbert doesn’t want to get too deep into why he thinks his late-night show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, was cancelled by CBS. But he’s not necessarily ruling out some of the most intense theories flying around, either. In an interview with GQ, Colbert addressed the cancellation of his incredibly popular late-night show and touched on the various reasons why the axe came down on the number one hit. In this interview, Colbert outright shared that “it’s a reasonable thing to think” that the cancellation of The Late Show was immediately linked to political motivations and the desire to “curry favor with a single individual.” However, Colbert stops short of confirming that politics, the president, or any other specific factor was the sole reason behind the cancellation of The Late Show, noting instead that all he thinks about the decision is “that is the network’s decision.” Let’s get into it.
In full, here’s what Colbert had to say about the idea that the cancellation of his well-performing The Late Show had to do with a lawsuit that the president filed, Paramount/CBS’s settlement with him, or Colbert’s comments on it, given the current state of the political world. Colbert revealed:
My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: That is the network’s decision. I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation—I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us—decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual. If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem. So people can have their theories. I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation. I have had a great relationship with CBS.
It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this. We do budgets and everything like that. We’ve done cuts and stuff like that. So that’s why it was surprising to me, as I said, but I meant what I said [on air] the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit on it. They’ve been great partners. They really have. They’ve been very supportive. It took us six to nine months to find our legs. Even before people watched the show, we didn’t quite figure out what we wanted to do. It didn’t come fully assembled out of the box the way The Colbert Report did. And they stood by us and they were very supportive and they gave us what we needed and we found it and we delivered for them what we wanted. I want to do a good job.
This feels like it somehow achieves a very diplomatic answer without being empty. Colbert emphasizes the strangeness surrounding the cancellation of The Late Show and the difference in the proceedings vs. his usual relationship with CBS. In fact, Colbert reveals that the network did not even call him personally to let him know. Colbert addresses the potential political motivation and gives it fair weight in his statement. And we appreciate this honesty. It indeed feels like something did not go fully right in this case, and it needs acknowledgement.
Colbert also noted, “I think we’re the first number one show to ever get canceled.” And confirmed that The Late Show has been number one since 2016, that’s NINE years. He offered this anecdote about wrestling with The Last Show‘s cancellation, “I called a friend of mine who’s also in late night, and I was trying to work out my feelings and I said, ‘You got any thoughts on this?’ And he goes, ‘No, no one’s going to have any thoughts on this. No one’s ever been the number one show for nine years in a row and then been canceled.’ And so that surprised me.” And who wouldn’t be surprised by cancellation after a decade of being on top.
Ultimately, the reason CBS/Paramount gave to Colbert and the audience for the cancellation of The Late Show is a financial one. Colbert sharesthat the network said, “That they’re getting out of the late-night space altogether because it’s no longer profitable for the network. And I said, ‘Well, if we can’t be, then no one can be.’ And look, they run the business and I run the show, and far be it for me to tell them how to run their business, but I’ll stick with: I found it very surprising.”
In a statement, CBS/Paramount echoed the sentiments, noting, “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise in May of 2026. 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. This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Whilst this may be true, it’s hard not to wonder if getting out of late-night is motivated not only by finances, but by content. With late-night hosts being some of the most vocal critics of our everyday life and purveyors of satire and intense honesty, having late-night shows on the schedule might begin to feel like a risky venture in the current climate. But, we dare to say, an incredibly important one.
The final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to air in May 2026. The show recently won the Emmy for best talk series. We feel sad to see Colbert go, but we know wherever he goes next, he will shine.
The post Stephen Colbert Says ‘Reasonable’ to Assume LATE SHOW Cancellation Is Political appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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