{"id":25672,"date":"2025-07-26T19:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T19:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25672\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T19:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T19:12:08","slug":"how-stephen-colbert-has-pushed-back-against-cbs-with-the-help-of-his-late-night-peers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/25672\/","title":{"rendered":"How Stephen Colbert Has Pushed Back Against CBS with the Help of His Late Night Peers"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re not watching \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d right now, you\u2019re missing appointment television. To say the gloves have come off since Colbert\u2019s cancellation announcement last week<\/a> would be a gross understatement. Not that Colbert really ever held back on his opinions, but a host scorned hath more fury.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, July 24, he even introduced a monologue cut-away segment<\/a> \u201cShow Un-Cancelled.\u201d Of course, that announcement turns out to be a fake-out \u2014\u00a0and the graphic used for it supposedly cost $40 million. That one\u2019s light hearted \u2014 no more scathing than what \u201cArrested Development\u201d threw down in its last season on Fox<\/a> (anyone old enough to remember that reference?). Throughout the first week of shows as a fallen angel, however, Colbert repeatedly seemed to play chicken with his network, CBS, and its parent company, Paramount, which just got the OK from the Trump Justice Department for a merger with Skydance (set to close August 7<\/a>.) Not only did he reference the cancellation and the Skydance deal numerous times, he also went even harder on Trump.<\/p>\n

More from IndieWire<\/p>\n

An then the other late night shows went just as hard (or harder) on CBS and Paramount. On Monday, July 21, most of the other hosts even appeared in a Colbert segment<\/a>, showcasing support for their competitor. References abounded in their own segments \u2014\u00a0some humorous, some ominous warnings \u2014\u00a0including some strong words from Jon Stewart on \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d which airs on fellow Paramount property Comedy Central.<\/p>\n

\u201cShows that say something, shows that take a stand, shows that are unafraid \u2014 this is not a \u2018We speak truth to power.\u2019 We don\u2019t. We speak opinions to television cameras. But we try. We fucking try, every night,\u201d Stewart said<\/a>. \u201cAnd if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourself so innocuous that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king\u2019s radar \u2014 A) Why will anyone watch you? And [B)] you are fucking wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, meanwhile, seem to be next on Trump\u2019s cancellation wish list \u2014 considering he called for their cancellation<\/a> and all. Fallon has been on vacation, and therefore has not had a monologue with which to respond. He did, however, write a statement<\/a> that told the network, \u201cFuck you and all your Sheldons CBS.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the July 21 show<\/a>, Fallon said, \u201cI am your host, well\u2026 at least for tonight. I don\u2019t like it. I don\u2019t like what\u2019s going on one bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fallon did get in a dig at CBS\u2019 streaming platform, adding, \u201cAnd many people are now threatening to boycott the network. Yep. CBS could lose millions of viewers plus tens of hundreds watching on Paramount+.\u201d \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d host also sang about Trump\u2019s continued Epstein drama and his late night interests in the song below.<\/p>\n

Comedy Central seems to have gotten the last laugh \u2014\u00a0so far, at least \u2014 on the whole debacle. The AI-segment seen \u2019round the world<\/a> this week came courtesy of \u201cSouth Park,\u201d who delivered perhaps the most blistering satire of President Donald Trump yet. This came just hours after the series closed a deal with Paramount<\/a> to continue for another five years, and just a day before the Justice Department approved the merger. The Wednesday, July 23 episode of \u201cSouth Park\u201d also spoke quite literally to the Skydance deal in a scene involving none other than Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys saw what happened to CBS,\u201d Christ mutter<\/a>s<\/a> through gritted teeth<\/a>. \u201cWell guess who owns CBS? Paramount! You really want to end up like Colbert?<\/p>\n

Then on July 25, former \u201cLate Show\u201d legend David Letterman, Colbert\u2019s predecessor, chimed in on his YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was money\u2026 it was pure cowardice,\u201d Letterman said, going on to praise \u201cprecise, crisp, witty political satirist\u201d Colbert. He then addressed CBS\/Paramount\u2019s decision, saying \u201cWhat the fuck is Skydance, honest to Christ? Is it a discount airline? Is that what it is? I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS, who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is this is gutless. I only wish this could happen to me\u2026 Fighting with network television management was number one in the playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

But no one went harder on Paramount than Colbert himself. In its statements discussing \u201cThe Late Show\u201d cancellation, Paramount repeatedly made mention of the show\u2019s $40 million annual losses. This figure has been questioned, and it was a number referenced repeatedly by Colbert all week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see us losing $24 million, but where could Paramount have possibly spent the other 16\u2026 Oh yeah,\u201d he said on the July 21 episode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the July 23 episode, he referenced how Trump claimed that CBS\/Paramount would be providing another $20 million a year in administration-approved airtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bending the knee, they lost like $40 million this year,\u201d Colbert said<\/a>. \u201cThey better watch out. They might get canceled for purely financial reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was just the tip of the iceberg for Colbert. It almost seems as if the stalwart late night presence is daring CBS to cancel him before May 2026, an idea also postured this week by Time<\/a>. Certainly his tone was not one that sounds\u2026 uh, let\u2019s say copasetic, with his employers.<\/p>\n

But you be the judge. What\u2019s Colbert\u2019s game? Here\u2019s a few of his daring comments from the week\u2019s shows, mined from his full monologues<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the weekend it sunk in that they\u2019re killing off our show. But they made one mistake: They left me alive!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the king\u2019s horses and all the king\u2019s men couldn\u2019t hide who Dumpty humped with his friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a great look when you fly on the pedophile\u2019s plane enough times to earn diamond pervert status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you gonna tell me next \u2014\u00a0that the Pope is in the Catholic files? That a bear is on the cover of this month\u2019s Modern Woods Pooper?\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course, he did also say succinctly, \u201cThe President was buddies with a pedophile.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gloves certainly are off.<\/p>\n

Best of IndieWire<\/p>\n

Sign up for Indiewire’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re not watching \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d right now, you\u2019re missing appointment television. To say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[16156,141,96,10202,3770,16155,3767,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-25672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cancellation","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-fallon","tag-paramount","tag-skydance","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}