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Former Late Show host David Letterman has made his first direct comments about the cancellation of the CBS late night franchise<\/a> \u2014\u00a0and they aren\u2019t positive.<\/p>\n Speaking with his former executive producer, Barbara Gaines, in a YouTube video Friday, Letterman called the axing of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert \u201cpure cowardice\u201d and said he doesn\u2019t believe the official line from CBS that the decision was purely about economics (the show has reportedly become a money-loser<\/a> for the network).<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that they\u2019re hiding behind money \u2014 they\u2019ve given [Colbert] another 10 months, that\u2019s another huge chunk of money they\u2019re gonna lose, according to them,\u201d Letterman says in the video (watch it in full below). \u201cI don\u2019t think it was money. I think it was all to make sure [Skydance head David Ellison, set to become CEO of Paramount when the two companies\u2019 merger closes<\/a> in early August] were solid spending dad\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n (For much of the video, Letterman refers to Ellison as \u201cthe Ellison twins\u201d and \u201cthe Oracle boys,\u201d as in the software giant headed by Larry Ellison, David Ellison\u2019s father. Co-host Mary Barclay corrects him at one point, noting that David Ellison is not a twin, but he continues with the bit.)<\/p>\n \u201cIf they were losing that kind of money \u2014 you\u2019re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday?\u201d Letterman continues. \u201cI bet they were losing this money a month ago or six weeks ago. Or they were never losing that kind of money. They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman\u2019s comments are his first directly addressing the cancellation of The Late Show, which he originated on CBS in 1993 and hosted until 2015. Colbert announced the cancellation on his July 17 show, although The Late Show will continue through the 2025-26 season. Letterman\u2019s YouTube channel, where his conversation with Gaines is posted, earlier this week shared a collection of Late Show clips<\/a> featuring Letterman lambasting network brass.<\/p>\n Letterman calls the decision \u201csad,\u201d though he jokes that it could be good for Colbert: \u201cFor Stephen, I love this, because he gets to be a martyr.\u201d<\/p>\n He also relates the Late Show cancellation to CBS settling a lawsuit<\/a> by Donald Trump against 60 Minutes for $16 million over the objections of the show\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is pure cowardice,\u201d Letterman says. \u201cYou\u2019re telling me 60 Minutes, the pinnacle of journalistic excellence and integrity for decades \u2026 they decided, \u2018Aw, we\u2019re sorry, let us give you $20 million.\u2019 I believe this is in the wake of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman closes with one last swipe at CBS and Paramount management. \u201cI think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is gutless.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Late Show host David Letterman has made his first direct comments about the cancellation of the CBS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[20521,49,48,15452,18027,12997,75,20522,12998,3668,348,20523],"class_list":{"0":"post-25383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-barbara-gaines","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cancellation","12":"tag-david-ellison","13":"tag-david-letterman","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-larry-ellison","16":"tag-late-show","17":"tag-stephen-colbert","18":"tag-tv","19":"tag-youtube-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25383","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=25383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}