Culture CBS is ending ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ next year

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/cbs-cancels-stephen-colbert

https://archive.ph/UAA9U

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/17/media/cbs-cancels-stephen-colbert

By Brian Stelter and Dan Heching, CNN
Thu July 17, 2025

In a shocking move, CBS is ending “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year, potentially exiting the late-night television business altogether.

The cancellation will take effect in May 2026, the normal end of the broadcast TV season, the network said.

The Thursday night announcement came just two weeks after the parent company of CBS, Paramount, settled a lawsuit lodged by President Trump against CBS News.

The settlement – and Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media – spurred speculation about Colbert’s future at CBS. Colbert, after all, is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television.

CBS, however, said in a statement that “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.”

Colbert shared the news at his show taping on Thursday afternoon.

“Next year will be our last season,” Colbert said as audible ‘boos’ were heard in the live studio audience. “The network will be ending our show in May,” he said. “It’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS,” he added, going on to say, “This is all just going away.”

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

 

[quaawaa]

Source (Archive)

 

[Haramburger]

“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

If the show performed well and the content was good, it would be profitable with advertisers. Don't fucking lie to me!

 

[Zorak Prison Pod]

Who would've thought out of all these guys Bill Maher would end up being the most 'reasonable' in the end.

After hearing this repeatedly, I tried watching Maher's podcast and...it's actually not bad. In fact I ended up subscribing. I know I sound like an ad right now but eh.

I mean hell he's the only person I know of criticizing trannies. Most liberals defend trannies of course, and most conservative internet personalities avoid the subject for some reason. I'll take what I can get.

 

[CharlesBarkley]

I don’t bother listening to political podcasts and the like because it only goes two ways:

1. “This nigger is retarded. I’m mad.”

2. “I agree but now I'm mad politics don’t go my way.”

Nothing ever really gets true debate on these, it’s never entertaining or insightful.

 

[TowinKarz]

After hearing this repeatedly, I tried watching Maher's podcast and...it's actually not bad. In fact I ended up subscribing. I know I sound like an ad right now but eh.

I mean hell he's the only person I know of criticizing trannies. Most liberals defend trannies of course, and most conservative internet personalities avoid the subject for some reason. I'll take what I can get.

He's what used to be a mainstream Democrat, 30 years ago, back when acknowledging there were practical limits to compassion and that government can't fix everything was a view held by a majority of leftists.

Before it became verboten to give the opposition power by suggesting your side was anything less than Utopia.

I don’t bother listening to political podcasts and the like because it only goes two ways:

1. “This nigger is retarded. I’m mad.”

2. “I agree but now I'm mad politics don’t go my way.”

Nothing ever really gets true debate on these, it’s never entertaining or insightful.

Me too, I only use them as a barometer to find out how far, or close, my ideas are to what the mainstream of a given party is. I don't expect to hear anything I didn't already know or be convinced to back a position I already oppose.

I'm just trying to get insight into what the leadership of both parties is throwing out there as the official line and how they plan to try and discredit anyone who thinks like me.

Lets me know if the person I'm talking to who claims to be a True and Honest Rep/Dem really is, or is just an NPC who got their marching orders last night at 11pm.

 

[ChampFantana]

I still remember when he first got the late show gig how absolutely lauded Stephen colbert was, in less then a year all that good will and respect was flushed down the drain. Did trump do irreversible damage to his brain, did comedy central just have better writers, is modern leftist comedy just impossible, is he just a hack?

He's never been funny or even slightly amusing to anyone with an IQ above 30. Same goes for Leibowitz and Kimmel, frankly.

This was a long time coming and I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. If he had anything between his ears except cobwebs and rat droppings, he would have seen this coming a mile away.

 

[Oliver Onions]

It would have been better if instead of getting cancelled Conan O'Brien appeared as the final guest and shot Colbert in the face.

 

[tehpope]

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Source (Archive)

 

[30+GameOvers]

Don't mind me, I will just piss all over that gravestone real quick
It will be real nice to not have to see that ugly mug on my youtube recommendations anymore. As for what he will do now, well, I guess backalleys of Arby's are always open, and we know he likes to run his mouth. In fact, this is all that this retard is good for.

 

[SquareNerd]

Stephen nooo

 

[Croaking Spider]

Debatable.

The only bit of Jay Leno I enjoy was this time when he had Don Rickles on. Don Rickles always went hard when he roasted people, but he made it clear it was all in good fun in the name of comedy. But with Jay Leno? It's genuine. I wish more talkshow guests would bust the host's balls more, it's a lost art.

On the other side of the coin, every time Don Rickle got on Dave Letterman's show, you could tell the two are good friends and enjoying cutting up with banter.

 

[Billy_Sama!]

The only bit of Jay Leno I enjoy was this time when he had Don Rickles on. Don Rickles always went hard when he roasted people, but he made it clear it was all in good fun in the name of comedy. But with Jay Leno? It's genuine.

I enjoyed Leno even though he really milked Michael Jackson jokes but his Youtube car channel is much more enjoyable.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

It would have been better if instead of getting cancelled Conan O'Brien appeared as the final guest and shot Colbert in the face.

We can have both.

 

[Dana scully]

HEYA HOYA HEYA HOYA HEYA HOYA
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he should sue companies that host the jimmy kimmel/fallon shows and along with john stewart all these people gotta suffer

 

[black people]

He was interesting and funny when he was a faux conservative on Comedy Central. Now he's just another Democrat propaganda mouthpiece.

 

[Ahriman]

Stumbled across this on Twitter, not exactly the same thing, but on the same theme.

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https://x.com/EudaimoniaEsq/status/1946225221746536705

Now it's time for conservative, sane and well-adjusted TV show hosts to take over.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

I wish nothing but the worst for Mr. Colbert in his future endeavors.

 

[#58fb58]

hahahaha this guy kept bitching about trump and now he's getting shut down or quitting.
stephen colbert has been freaking out since trump was elected. all his headliners would attempt to make fun of trump.
trump this trump that, it's like he went full senile.

 

[Hunter Hearst Helmsley]

It's amazing how just a decade ago Colbert was getting cancelled by twitter because of a tweet that his promotional Twitter account that he didn't run reposted a joke aimed at mocking the Washington Redskins.

I think this was where he became Skibidi Biden Two Scoops Drumpfler, because he tried to call out the people trying to cancel him, but the issue was he was doing it in character so we couldn't see who the actual Stephen Colbert was. Then a few months later or so he has an interview with Anita Sarkeesian.

Cancel Colbert was the birth of cancel culture. Nobody called sending a PC mob after someone "Cancelling" before this. They meant cancel the show but the show was named after the guy and here we are.

It's amazing to me how far Colbert fell. 10 years on broadcast late night with no legacy besides hating on a politician who won two historical elections during his hosting tenure, so history will know for sure that Colbert talked about politics every night and had no national impact on politics.

The Colbert Report was sharp and witty and I miss that era of liberal comedy. Democrats have not had a functioning sense of humor since colbert and original Stewart TDS went off the air. At the end of the day, both of them gave shit to Democrats too back then but Democrats lost their tolerance for dissent and criticism and decided to maximize their out of touch incompetence instead. That's what cancel culture does.

 

[NoReturn]

This is one of the things you see searching for gifs of his show:

You don't hate him enough, or rather his fans, enough, for the way it turned caustic, snarky dismissal into a valid argument (in their eyes).

It was infuriating to the extreme to come to a political debate with a briefcase full of facts and graphs about how a proposed trillion-dollar social program was not going to work, and to be met with a patronizing "Uh oh! Someone thinks its still 1982!" and get laughed off the stage while the person whose "argument" boiled down to "I'm right because I don't got to church and pray for God to solve my problems, I get them done for REAL!" got all the applause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn200lvmTZc

Colbert isn't just unfunny, he's actually fucking malicious. The Colbert report had a frequently recurring section detailing the absolute corruption and evil shit that pharmaceutical companies got up to. He read that kinda stuff off for almost a decade, then turned around and did straight-up propaganda pressuring his audience to take untested products. I actually tried to find an example but they all seem to be completely scrubbed from the internet. Does anyone else remember the segments I'm talking about? They all started with a skeleton throwing back a bottle of pills, which rattled out between his ribs, if I recall correctly.

You aren't insane, and I even found one that was removed with confirmation of who removed it:

Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A.

Cheating Death is a medical and health-related segment. During Cheating Death, Colbert refers to himself as Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A., a reference to the Honorary Fine Arts Doctorate that was awarded to him by Knox College.

The introduction graphic to this segment is a reference to the chess game with Death in Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal, with Colbert wearing scrubs as he uses trickery to literally cheat Death and win (another variant has him conning Death out of its money at three card monte). Colbert usually then prefaces each segment by noting that he is not a medical doctor, but a Doctor of Fine Arts, followed by a joke about what he is allowed to do (example: delivering babies through Georgia O'Keeffe paintings). The segment usually features accounts of actual medical and health news, including recent breakthroughs and announcements of the type found on other medical and health segments which then segue into plugs for the (fictional) sponsor, Prescott Pharmaceuticals, and their highly dubious "Vaxa" product line. (Prescott Pharmaceuticals is apparently part of a large, rather shady company known as the Prescott Group, whom Colbert frequently promotes. Their other divisions include Prescott Oil and Prescott Finance.) This health advice is generally dangerous or unhelpful, and said products also cause bizarre side effects such as "Skeletal Xylophoning",[5] or "REO Speedlung".[6] The segment always ends with Colbert saying, "I'll see you in health!," a play on the phrase, "I'll see you in hell!"

On the April 25, 2011 episode, Colbert renamed his product line "Vacsa", after he received a cease-and-desist letter from a company whose line of homeopathic products is actually called Växa. He insisted that any similarities between the two names was purely "axidental".

The segment was used as the culmination of the program's series finale; Death (who is referred to as Grimmy), who was intended to be the show's final guest, does not fall for Colbert's tricks and strangles him upon watching him actually cheat. This results in a struggle that ends with Colbert accidentally killing Death with his pistol Sweetness and becoming an immortal.[7]

Stumbled across this on Twitter, not exactly the same thing, but on the same theme.

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I did find one compilation from 2007

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6qrs7