Colbert Says CBS Fires Late Show Staff After May 21 Finale as Exit Must Finish Within 1 Week
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · May 13
Colbert Says CBS Fires Late Show Staff After May 21 Finale as Exit Must Finish Within 1 Week
4 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · May 13
May 21 is not just Stephen Colbert’s final "Late Show" episode — he said his staff stops getting paid the next day and everyone must be out by the following Friday.
Colbert told fellow late-night hosts on the revived Strike Force Five podcast that CBS would start stripping the studio immediately; he said he has already packed his office.
The abrupt shutdown adds to scrutiny of CBS’s claim that canceling the show was purely financial, after Paramount ended it days after Colbert attacked its $16 million Trump settlement.
Jimmy Kimmel called reports that the show was losing $40 million a year nonsensical, while David Letterman blasted CBS executives as “lying weasels.”
Colbert has not directly accused CBS of retaliation, but said something changed after he had been signed less than 2 years earlier for a long-term future.
Was TV's top late-night show axed for financial losses or to ease a massive corporate merger?
As network late-night fades, where will audiences now turn for shared cultural commentary?
How does government pressure quietly shape the news and comedy we are allowed to see on television?