CBS Cancels Stephen Colbert, & Fans Think It’s Because He Called Out Their Parent Company’s $16 Million Trump Settlement A “Big Fat Bribe”

The rare “didn’t see that one coming… but kind of saw that one coming” cancelation.

Folks, if you were looking for a sign that late night television programs are on life support, here’s your sign. In a shocking development, CBS has announced they are canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. And the network isn’t just firing Colbert to bring in a replacement… they’re just axing the show altogether.

Here’s the network’s statement on the matter:

“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise in May of 2026. 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.  This is 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.”

As you can see, CBS cited financial reasons for canceling Colbert, but the timing has led many public figures – like Senator Elizabeth Warren – to question if the cancelation was politically motivated. After all, CBS and Paramount just paid a $16 million settlement to Donald Trump after he sued them for editing Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview to make her look better during her 2024 presidential run, and then Colbert blasted the network for it.

Here’s what the late night host had to say about the situation, the monologue that many think got him fired:

“As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended. And I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company, but just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help. This settlement is for a nuisance lawsuit Trump filed claiming that ’60 Minutes’ deceptively edited their interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris last fall. Paramount knows they could have easily fought it because, in their own words, the lawsuit was completely without merit. And keep in mind, Paramount produced Transformers Rise of the Beasts. They know completely without merits.

Unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount’s settlement did not include an apology. Instead, the corporation released a statement where they said, ‘You may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash.’ I believe that this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s big fat bribe. Because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.”

And regardless of how you feel about politics… CBS and 60 Minutes did do that. There’s no debating that portion of the story. There is also no debating how appalling that is from a journalistic integrity perspective. CBS called it “normative editing” and argued that it was done for time, but the running theme with Kamala Harris’ campaign was her nonsensical, word-salad responses to basic questions… this “normative editing for time” surely made her look better than what was communicated. Would they have done that for Donald Trump… of course not. So while not a violation of the law per se, it’s certainly shady.

The truth is, CBS probably would have won that lawsuit? First Amendment rights give them a bit of leeway in the area of editing, but there’s no doubt that defending the $20 billion lawsuit would’ve been expensive. Is paying up a way to grease the palms of the Trump Administration so they can approve the merger as Colbert alleged? Definitely won’t hurt, but there’s also their integrity at stake here in a time when people already don’t trust the news media. Pay the money, smooth over your merger, and essentially admit to be shady without apologizing and move on… probably the easiest for everybody involved, right?

Nevertheless, many are assuming that because Colbert stood up to CBS and Paramount and insisted that what they did with the settlement was wrong, bending the knee to Trump if you will, the network decided to respond to his criticism by… laying him off. Of course, Colbert never called out 60 Minutes, did he? He wasn’t “offended” by that, was he? No, of course not.

And just to get technical and logistical here, canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is a bit of a wild decision when you look at late night show ratings. It’s no secret that programs like The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! aren’t the juggernauts that they used to be. Cable television used to be the end goal… now it’s falling behind, and struggling to keep up with modern media.

Despite that turn in how modern day consumers view television, Colbert was still outpacing his late night competitors, and it wasn’t particularly close. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert averaged 2.42 million viewers per night, while Jimmy Kimmel Live! posted 1.7 million nightly viewers, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon had around 1.2 million.

Because the numbers don’t necessarily add up, and the timing around the settlement and Colbert’s criticism of it can’t be ignored, many are making this out to be a political story. And Stephen Colbert was undoubtedly left-leaning with his show, so it very well could have played a factor. But honestly, this could just be the first step in an eventual collective move by networks away from the late night format.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will run until May of 2026, and then The Late Show – which has been on air for 33 years – will be no more, as Colbert explained in his address to the cancelation: