CBS Ends Colbert's 33-Year Late Show Franchise as $16 Million Trump Settlement Fuels Suspicion
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · May 20
CBS Ends Colbert's 33-Year Late Show Franchise as $16 Million Trump Settlement Fuels Suspicion
10 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · May 20
21 May will mark the end of CBS's 33-year Late Show franchise, with Stephen Colbert's run closing after a celebrity-filled farewell at New York's Ed Sullivan Theater.
The cancellation came three days after Colbert mocked Paramount's $16 million settlement with Donald Trump and a week before regulators approved Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance, sharpening doubts about CBS's claim it was purely financial.
Colbert, 62, had turned the show into late night's top-rated program and won last year's Emmy for outstanding talk series, making the decision harder for critics to square with weak-business arguments.
Trump celebrated the show's demise on Truth Social, while David Letterman and other observers said CBS was masking political pressure tied to merger approval and broader attacks on anti-Trump late-night hosts.
The show's replacement by Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed underscores how shrinking TV economics and a tougher political climate are pushing combative comedy away from broadcast networks.
With iconic hosts departing, where will audiences now find the unique blend of political satire and civic education?
Did a new interpretation of a 1927 broadcast rule signal the end for a modern era of late-night television?