{"id":269309,"date":"2025-11-03T18:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/269309\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T18:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:28:08","slug":"stephen-colbert-on-cancellation-of-the-late-show-so-surprising-and-so-shocking-stephen-colbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/269309\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert on cancellation of the Late Show: \u2018So surprising and so shocking\u2019 | Stephen Colbert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Colbert has opened up about the shock cancellation of The Late Show in a new interview, calling it: \u201cThe first number one show to ever get cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a GQ interview<\/a>, the 61-year-old host and comedian said the decision came as a surprise to him and one that didn\u2019t have any preamble.<\/p>\n

Colbert said his \u201cgreat relationship\u201d with CBS<\/a> was \u201cone of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, every show\u2019s got to end at some time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve been on a bunch of shows that have ended sometimes by our lights and sometimes by the decision of other people. That\u2019s just the nature of show business. You can\u2019t worry about that. You got to be a big boy about that. But I think we\u2019re the first number one show to ever get cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, after Colbert criticised CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount, for making a $16m settlement with Donald Trump, he announced<\/a> the show would be coming to an end in May 2026. The Late Show began in 1993.<\/p>\n

In August, the CBS chief, George Cheeks, blamed<\/a> it on \u201ceconomics\u201d, with the advertising marketplace \u201cin significant secular decline\u201d before adding: \u201cAt the end of the day, it just wasn\u2019t sustainable to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet many believe it was a result of the network bowing to the president, who celebrated the news on social media, writing: \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Late Show host David Letterman called<\/a> the decision one of \u201cpure cowardice\u201d, adding: \u201cI think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed. This is gutless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation \u2013 I\u2019m not going to say who made that decision, because I don\u2019t know; no one\u2019s ever going to tell us \u2013 decided to cut a check for $16m to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount\u2019s own lawyers, said is completely without merit,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cAnd it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert also admitted feeling some relief that he will no longer need to \u201cput on the snorkel and get into the sewer every day\u201d.<\/p>\n

The star has not confirmed what his next move will be but said he loved \u201ccreating things\u201d and wanted to continue working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert has opened up about the shock cancellation of The Late Show in a new interview, calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-269309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}