Stephen Colbert addressed the future of The Late Show after CBS announced the program would come to an end. The host confirmed the date of the show’s final episode following the network’s earlier statement about its conclusion.
Stephen Colbert announces final date of his show
Stephen Colbert announced that the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air on 21 May (via Variety). He revealed the date during a taping of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he appeared as a guest. Colbert has hosted The Late Show since 2015. The announcement confirms CBS’s July statement that The Late Show would end in May. This marks the end of its run since debuting under David Letterman in 1993.
Colbert stated in July, “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.” CBS described the cancellation as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” emphasizing it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The cancellation was announced weeks after Paramount, CBS’s parent company, agreed to a $16 million settlement with Donald Trump regarding a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Around the same time, Paramount was seeking federal approval for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. Days before the announcement, Colbert commented on the settlement, calling it a “big fat bribe.”
The decision prompted reactions from political figures. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on X, “Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO.” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired.”
Colbert continued to criticize the Trump administration in the months following the announcement. Reflecting on the first year of Trump’s second term, he said the president had “monopolized our attention every second of every minute of every hour of every day.”
