{"id":24980,"date":"2025-07-26T07:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24980\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T07:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:23:08","slug":"david-letterman-blasts-cbs-over-gutless-colbert-cancellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/24980\/","title":{"rendered":"David Letterman Blasts CBS Over ‘Gutless’ Colbert Cancellation"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

David Letterman<\/a> is finally weighing in on CBS\u2019s decision to cancel the franchise he created 30-plus years ago. <\/p>\n

In a newly released video for his YouTube channel<\/a>, the legendary late-night host condemned his former network bosses, calling them \u201cgutless\u201d and \u201ccowards\u201d for how they\u2019ve handled Stephen Colbert\u2019s ousting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not do the correct thing. They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled,\u201d Letterman said, adding: \u201cI think one day the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letterman speculated that CBS\u2019s move was less about money\u2014as the network has claimed\u2014and more about politics and corporate appeasement. Referencing the $16 million settlement Paramount paid Donald Trump to end a lawsuit involving 60 Minutes, Letterman suggested Colbert\u2019s cancellation is an effort to avoid ruffling feathers ahead of the pending sale of CBS and Paramount to Skydance Media<\/a>, whose ownership has close ties to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want any trouble from that guy,\u201d Letterman said, referring to Colbert\u2019s pointed political satire. \u201cSo CBS said, \u2018Not only are we going to get rid of that guy\u2014we\u2019re going to get rid of the entire franchise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling Colbert \u201cprecise, crisp, witty\u201d and \u201cthe face of the network\u201d over the past decade, Letterman praised his successor and noted that his show had been nominated for an Emmy just before when the axe fell. \u201cHe\u2019s a martyr,\u201d Letterman added.<\/p>\n

CBS maintains that Colbert\u2019s cancellation was strictly a financial decision, citing declining ad revenues across the late-night landscape.<\/p>\n

David Letterman launched Late Show on CBS in 1993, bringing his signature brand of offbeat humor to the 11:35 p.m. time slot for more than two decades. Colbert took over the show in 2015 after Letterman\u2019s retirement, continuing to host the show from the Ed Sullivan Theater, which had been retrofitted for Letter two decades earlier.<\/p>\n

Watch Letterman\u2019s full remarks at the top of this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Letterman is finally weighing in on CBS\u2019s decision to cancel the franchise he created 30-plus years ago.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-24980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}