{"id":39323,"date":"2025-07-26T18:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/39323\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T18:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:37:08","slug":"david-letterman-slams-gutless-cbs-over-late-show-cancellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/39323\/","title":{"rendered":"David Letterman Slams ‘Gutless’ CBS Over ‘Late Show’ Cancellation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Letterman<\/a> slammed \u201cgutless\u201d CBS<\/a> over the \u201csad\u201d cancellation of The Late Show<\/a> \u2014 as well as his former employer\u2019s cowering to the Trump administration amid the Skydance merger \u2014 in his first public comments since the network axed the late-night institution.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month, CBS announced<\/a> that The Late Show \u2014 which Letterman brought to air in August 1993 \u2014 would end its run in May 2026. While the network claimed the cancellation was \u201cpurely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,\u201d many, including Letterman, have speculated that the move was due to the pending merger between parent company Paramount and Skydance.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe $8 billion merger, which required approval from the Trump administration, is speculated as the motive<\/a> behind CBS capitulating to the White House and settling the 60 Minutes lawsuit<\/a>, as well as the true reason why the network canceled the late-night show hosted by Stephen Colbert<\/a>, a vocal Trump critic. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission approved the Paramount\/Skydance merger.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a video posted on Letterman\u2019s official YouTube channel, the former Late Show host unleashed against the \u201cgutless\u201d CBS. \u201cThis is pure cowardice,\u201d Letterman told former Late Show producers Barbara Gaines and co-host Mary Barclay in the video. \u201cYou\u2019re telling me\u00a060 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

\n\t(Letterman previously criticized the move<\/a> with a montage of clips where he poked fun at CBS from his days hosting the late-night show.)<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tLetterman added of the \u201csad\u201d Late Show cancellation, \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. I don\u2019t think it was money\u2026 If they were losing that kind of money \u2014 you\u2019re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday? I 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

\n\tIn the aftermath of the Late Show cancellation, the late-night community and the television-watching public at large has rallied behind Colbert<\/a>. \u201cFor Stephen, I love this, because he gets to be a martyr,\u201d Letterman added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Letterman slammed \u201cgutless\u201d CBS over the \u201csad\u201d cancellation of The Late Show \u2014 as well as his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[991,13724,88,13850,10674,10675,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-39323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-david-letterman","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-late-show","12":"tag-stephen-colbert","13":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39323","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=39323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}