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Fans line up in the rain outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York on Thursday, ahead of the final episode of \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert.\u201d (Ted Shaffrey \/ The Associated Press files)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m speaking, of course, about the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which aired last Thursday, bringing a defiantly joyful end to one of TV\u2019s late-night institutions after an 11-year run with the former Colbert Report star as its host (the show\u2019s creator and original host, David Letterman, retired in 2015 after 22 years at its helm).<\/p>\n
CBS had announced last July that it was cancelling The Late Show at the end of this season and that the move was \u201cpurely a financial decision\u201d because the program, despite being TV\u2019s top-rated after-hours talk show, was a money-loser for the network.<\/p>\n
The timing and optics of the cancellation suggested there was more at play than ratings and revenue lines, however, and that notoriously thin-skinned U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s seething dislike for the late-night hosts \u2014 including Colbert \u2014 who frequently ridicule his administration\u2019s outrageous antics may have been a factor in CBS\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
The network\u2019s parent company, Paramount Global, was pursuing a multi-billion-dollar merger deal requiring regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and, in a move clearly intended to court the president\u2019s (and, by extension, the newly politicized FCC\u2019s) approval, had offered a $16 billion \u201cdonation\u201d to Trump\u2019s future presidential library in order to settle a lawsuit he had filed against CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes over the way it edited a 2024 interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n
After the settlement was announced, Colbert described it on-air as \u201ca big fat bribe.\u201d Three days later, CBS issued the notice of The Late Show\u2019s cancellation; one week after that, the FCC approved the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media.<\/p>\n
With the fate of his show sealed, Colbert approached its final season with a no-holds-barred attitude, using his nightly monologues to lambaste Trump and lampoon CBS on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
As The Late Show\u2019s final weeks counted down, Colbert\u2019s opening segments took on a more reflective and celebratory air, and last week\u2019s lineup demonstrated the host\u2019s determination to go out on the highest note possible.<\/p>\n