July 17, 2025

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: CBS cancels The Late Show, Stephen Colbert to end program in May 2026.

“‘THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT’ will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,” CBS said in a statement. “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.”

CBS said it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” adding, “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

“I found out just last night, next year will be our last season,” host Stephen Colbert told his studio audience in a video posted on Instagram. “The network will be ending ‘The Late Show’ in May.”

“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” Colbert continued.

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Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Colbert’s Thursday night guest, reacted on X, “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”

The above sentence may be a clue as to why Colbert is being fired:

Next stop CNN?

Related: Past performance was no guarantee of future results with Colbert:

UPDATE: Colbert’s not a good enough actor to hide his anger over being told by CBS that he’s being axed:

MORE: Here’s Clay Travis discussing Colbert’s next gig, and how he lost his current one:

Posted at 8:52 pm by Ed Driscoll