DAVID HARSANYI: Stephen Colbert turned into the pompous dullard he once satirized.

Other guests whom Colbert lifted on his show since the 2015 election of President Donald Trump were antisemites such as Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, and socialists such as former Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). An interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (he/him), who maintains that God is “nonbinary” and white skin spreads the “virus” of racism, was put online after concerns about violating the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rule.

During the recent NYC mayoral race, Colbert had on Hamas apologist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, along with City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Yes, the Brad Lander. What a tremendous thrill it must have been for the late-night audience to hear from a city accountant.

Though it’s not fair to say that Colbert never had on a Republican. Trump-haters, former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were also on. By one measure, the host had 176 left-leaning or Democratic guests, or 99% of his visitors.

Carson, despite perceptions, did have political guests such as Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Jerry Brown, Ted Kennedy, Tip O’Neill, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. The point, judging from old clips, was to show the human side of these political celebrities, not to use the show as a campaign stop.

Colbert, whose legacy Eric Deggans at NPR says was that he “distinguished truth from truthiness,” is free to feature anyone he likes on the show. He can also be out of business. The monotonous, one-sided, cringy disparagement would become painful for anyone who wasn’t obsessed with politics to watch. One of the problems is that leftists simply can’t ridicule themselves. Not really.

Related: NBC Miscasts CBS Ownership as Partisan Actor as Colbert Eulogies Begin.

CHLOE MELAS: CBS was recently acquired by Skydance Media, whose owner David Ellison is a prominent Trump supporter. CBS called the cancellation a purely financial decision and not related in any way to the show’s performance. But that statement doesn’t ring true to everyone. Brian Lowry is a media veteran reporter.

BRIAN LOWRY: There was a sense the studio was eager to curry favor with the Trump administration.

The idea of Ellison as “prominent Trump supporter” makes for good narrative ahead of Colbert’s cancellation. But it simply isn’t true. As our own Brent Baker noted, in 2024 Ellison donated $929,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. AS CNBC noted, this was “the largest recorded contribution that the Skydance Media CEO ever made to a federal candidate.” Not very MAGA. Also, not very accurate.

The Ellison MAGA rebrand is an important element in the ongoing canonization of late-night comics to Resistance™ sainthood. In Colbert’s particular case this narrative is useful inasmuch as it helps brush off the financial reality of the show as a key element of its cancellation.

Not to mention the advanced average age of his viewers, as the Hollywood Reporter noted in the middle of a piece from last year headlined, “What Will Stephen Colbert Do After Late Show Ends? He Has Options:”

Another road is if Colbert decides to launch his own talk or interview show — whether a podcast or on YouTube. The average age of a Colbert viewer is 68, which perhaps says more about CBS’ audience than it does Colbert’s, but it also makes it a bit tougher to imagine Colbert hustling viewers to “smash that like and subscribe button” on YouTube alongside MrBeast.

But there’s almost three million of them. So, perhaps the next stop for Colbert is Substack?

Stephen Colbert was losing $40 million a year but this is the signal that Substack wants him and it will be the death of the platform. https://t.co/qqnTqRaiQs

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 16, 2026