{"id":73915,"date":"2025-08-11T05:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/73915\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T05:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T05:12:12","slug":"jon-batiste-backs-stephen-colbert-after-late-show-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/73915\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Batiste Backs Stephen Colbert After ‘Late Show’ Axing"},"content":{"rendered":"

US musician Jon Batiste has come out swinging in defence of his former colleague Stephen Colbert following news that The Late Show will end in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CBS announced the move last month, calling it \u201cpurely a financial decision.\u201d<\/a> Since then, however, a number of notable names have blasted the news, including Jon Stewart<\/a> and David Letterman<\/a>, while others have questioned if it was a political move by the network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with\u00a0Rolling Stone AU\/NZ ahead of the release of his new album, BIG MONEY, Batiste, who served as bandleader and musical director of\u00a0The Late Show from 2015-2022,\u00a0also slammed CBS\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to my friend Stephen is a symptom of big money,\u201d the Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a time where the right price can silence the voice of free speech, which we should be very, very conscious of. As artists, we have to constantly fight for free speech and fight for the ability to be able to share the authentic truth of our being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week will mark the 11th anniversary of Batiste\u2019s first meeting with Colbert, as they embarked on the new iteration of The Late Show together following Letterman\u2019s departure from the long-running talk show.<\/p>\n

When he thinks about his time on The Late Show, as well as his friendship with Colbert, Batiste only has\u00a0warm memories.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt meant so much to be in my 20s on national television and learning the ropes of being on a nightly show with a band and, really, being on camera and doing that for seven years. And to evolve as an artist in partnership with him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful to him and I think where he goes next, his voice won\u2019t be silenced. The voice of free speech is challenge, but the soul of an individual cannot be cancelled. He\u2019s gonna find another megaphone, another outlet, I\u2019m sure of it. I\u2019m rooting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote an opinion piece for Variety<\/a> in which she questioned why The Late Show\u00a0was cancelled: \u201cRight now, Paramount is trying to merge with Skydance, another huge media company. This deal is worth $8 billion \u2013\u202fand, by the way, it could raise prices for millions of viewers. But here\u2019s the kicker: This merger can only go through if it\u2019s approved by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of fighting Trump on his \u201cmeritless\u201d lawsuit, Paramount settled<\/a>, handing $16 million to Trump\u2019s presidential library. This looks like bribery in plain sight, and that\u2019s exactly what Stephen Colbert\u00a0said on his show<\/a>: \u201c[T]his kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it\u2019s \u2018big, fat bribe.\u2019\u201d Three days later, Paramount-owned CBS canceled Colbert\u2019s show. And Trump didn\u2019t waste a moment before\u00a0celebrating the news<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

BIG MONEY\u00a0is set for release on Friday, 22nd August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US musician Jon Batiste has come out swinging in defence of his former colleague Stephen Colbert following news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,52777,13728,10674,52778,10675,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-73915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jon-batiste","10":"tag-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","11":"tag-stephen-colbert","12":"tag-stephen-colbert-jon-batiste","13":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73915","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=73915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}