The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled and will end in May, with network CBS announcing it will retire the Late Show entirely after a 33-year run.
The news comes just a few days after Colbert criticised the network’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump for $16m (£12m) over the US president’s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with the then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
The settlement coincided with Paramount seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. Colbert called the settlement “a big fat bribe”.
Colbert, who has hosted the talkshow since 2015, announced the news during Thursday night’s recording, telling the audience he had been told of the decision the previous night.
As the audience booed, he said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.
“It’s not just the end of the show, it is the end of the Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” Colbert said.
He said he was “grateful” to the viewers and the show’s 200-strong crew.
“Let me tell you, it is a fantastic job,” he added. “I wish someone else was getting it. And it is a job I am looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months.”
Colbert took over on the Late Show from the veteran host David Letterman, who hosted the show for 22 years, from 1993 to 2015. The show has had consistently high ratings in its slot and is often the highest-rated show in late-night.
CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, is attempting to close the merger with Skydance after the deal fell apart last year. Paramount’s owners have been pushing the Trump administration to approve the sale of CBS to Skydance.
Colbert, speaking about the lawsuit settlement with Trump, said on Tuesday’s episode “Paramount knows they could have fought it”, because the company itself had called the lawsuit “completely without merit”.
“And keep in mind, Paramount produced Transformers: Rise of the Beast – they know completely without merit,” he joked.
Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat who appeared as a guest on Thursday night’s show, later wrote on social media: “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called for an investigation into Paramount Global’s relationship with Trump over the Skydance merger, wrote: “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount … America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
George Cheeks, co-CEO of Paramount Global and president and CEO of CBS; Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment; and David Stapf, president of CBS Studios, issued a joint statement saying the Late Show would “end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season”.
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time. 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,” they said.
The statement added that the cancellation was “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,” the network added.
