The cancellation comes days after Colbert slammed CBS parent company for settling lawsuit with Trump; CBS has denied connection
Jimmy Kimmel lashed out at CBS News in an expletive-laden rant on Thursday evening after the network announced it plans to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in May 2026.
“Love you Stephen. Fuck you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel, whose late-night show airs on rival network ABC News, posted on Instagram Stories—a jab at what critics call CBS’s reliance on sitcom The Big Bang Theory and its spinoff, Young Sheldon.
Colbert, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, on Monday slammed CBS parent company Paramount’s decision to settle Trump’s lawsuit accusing the network of deceptively editing a Kamala Harris interview to boost her presidential campaign. Colbert called CBS’s planned million-dollar payout a “big fat bribe,” suggesting that the network wants curry favor with the Trump administration to secure approval of Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media.
Colbert, who took over The Late Show from David Letterman in 2015, has for years leaned into anti-Trump rhetoric and progressive politics. Just last month, Colbert’s show hosted New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a socialist whose far-left, anti-Israel agenda has drawn Republican backlash and rattled the Democratic establishment amid reports that his allies plan to primary incumbent Democrats.
CBS, meanwhile, insisted in Thursday’s announcement that canceling Colbert’s show is “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
“I found out just last night, next year will be our last season,” Colbert told his studio audience. “The network will be ending The Late Show in May.”
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS,” Colbert went on. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
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