Last July, talk-show host and comic Stephen Colbert used his opening monologue on The Late Show to address the news that CBS was taking him off the air. The veteran showman drank in the adoration of perhaps the lustiest crowd to pack the Ed Sullivan Theatre since the Beatles held the stage in 1964. \u201cFolks, I\u2019m going to go ahead and say it,\u201d he deadpanned. \u201cCancel culture\u2019s gone too far.\u201d The gag drew the same mix of laughter and applause that always greeted Colbert\u2019s punchlines over a decade headlining television\u2019s biggest late-night franchise. But its implication overshadowed The Late Show\u2019s final days: This was not a natural death.<\/p>\n
Indeed, although network sources insist<\/a> their hand was forced by mounting costs<\/a> and shrinking viewership share, most media watchers blamed Donald Trump. Colbert also insinuated that the television-obsessed president, who had been the butt of thousands of Late Show jokes<\/a> over the years, had engineered his downfall as the tax for permitting a US$8 billion merger<\/a> between Skydance Media and Paramount Global, CBS\u2019s corporate parent. Although Trump denied any involvement<\/a> in the decision, his gloating on Truth Social did little to discourage suspicions.<\/p>\n But even amid the laments attending the program\u2019s final broadcast, few echoed its host in invoking that feverish social phenomenon known colloquially\u2014if often facetiously\u2014as cancel culture. This omission is especially odd since, twelve years ago, it was Colbert himself who helped introduce the concept to the wider world.<\/p>\n This article is for paying subscribers only.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-04-at-12.37.56.png\")
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