CBS is canceling “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert” subsequent Might, shuttering a decades-old TV establishment in a altering media panorama and eradicating from air one among President Donald Trump’s most distinguished and protracted late-night critics.
Thursday’s announcement adopted Colbert’s criticism on Monday of a settlement between Trump and Paramount International, guardian firm of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story.
Colbert informed his viewers at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater that he had discovered Wednesday evening that after a decade on air, “subsequent 12 months will probably be our final season. … It’s the top of ‘The Late Present’ on CBS. I’m not being changed. That is all simply going away.”
The viewers responded with boos and groans.
“Yeah, I share your emotions,” the 61-year-old comedian stated.
Three high Paramount and CBS executives praised Colbert’s present as “a staple of the nation’s zeitgeist” in a press release that stated the cancellation “is solely a monetary determination towards a difficult backdrop in late evening. It’s not associated in any option to the present’s efficiency, content material or different issues taking place at Paramount.”
In his Monday monologue, Colbert stated he was “offended” by the $16 million settlement reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media wants the Trump administration’s approval. He stated the technical title in authorized circles for the deal was “massive fats bribe.”
“I don’t know if something — something — will restore my belief on this firm,” Colbert stated. “However, simply taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would assist.”
Trump had sued Paramount International over how “60 Minutes” edited its interview final fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Critics say the corporate settled primarily to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale.
Colbert took over “The Late Present” in 2015 after changing into a giant title in comedy and information satire working with Jon Stewart on “The Every day Present” and internet hosting “The Colbert Report,” which riffed on right-wing speak exhibits.
The newest scores from Nielsen present Colbert gaining viewers up to now this 12 months and profitable his timeslot amongst broadcasters, with about 2.417 million viewers throughout 41 new episodes. On Tuesday, Colbert’s “Late Present” landed its sixth nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for excellent speak present. It gained a Peabody Award in 2021.
David Letterman started internet hosting “The Late Present” in 1993. When Colbert took over, he deepened its engagement with politics. Alongside musicians and film stars, Colbert usually welcomes politicians to his sofa.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California was a visitor on Thursday evening. Schiff stated on X that “if Paramount and CBS ended the Late Present for political causes, the general public deserves to know. And deserves higher.” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts launched the same assertion.
Colbert’s counterpart on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel, posted on Instagram “Love you Stephen” and directed an expletive at CBS.
Actor and producer Jamie Lee Curtis famous in an interview in Los Angeles that the cancellation got here because the Home handed a invoice approving Trump’s request to chop funding to public broadcasters NPR and PBS.
“They’re making an attempt to silence individuals, however that gained’t work. Gained’t work. We are going to simply get louder,” stated Curtis, who has beforehand criticized Trump and is ready to go to Colbert’s present in coming days.
Colbert has lengthy focused Trump. The friends on his very first present in September 2015 have been actor George Clooney and Jeb Bush, who was then struggling in his Republican presidential main marketing campaign towards Trump.
“Gov. Bush was the governor of Florida for eight years,” Colbert informed his viewers. “And you’ll assume that that a lot publicity to oranges and loopy individuals would have ready him for Donald Trump. Evidently not.”
Late-night TV has been dealing with financial pressures for years; scores and advert income are down and lots of younger viewers favor highlights on-line, which networks have bother monetizing. CBS additionally not too long ago canceled host Taylor Tomlinson’s “After Midnight,” which aired after “The Late Present.”
Nonetheless, Colbert had led the community late-night competitors for years. And whereas NBC has acknowledged financial pressures by eliminating the band on Seth Meyers’ present and chopping one evening of Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Present,” there had been no such seen efforts at “The Late Present.”
Colbert’s relentless criticism of Trump, his denunciation of the settlement, and the guardian firm’s pending sale can’t be ignored, stated Invoice Carter, creator of “The Late Shift.”
“If CBS thinks persons are simply going to swallow this, they’re actually deluded,” Carter stated.
Andy Cohen, who started his profession at CBS and now hosts “Watch What Occurs Reside,” stated in an interview: “It’s a very unhappy day for CBS that they’re getting out of the late-night race. I imply, they’re turning off the lights after the information.”