Cancelling Colbert, bribery, an $8bn deal: what’s going on at Paramount?

‘Just as you rarely see or hear anything on Fox that is critical of Trump, likewise it may very well end up that CBS will be essentially in the same position’ … Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

For a decade the comedian Stephen Colbert has mocked, ridiculed and eviscerated Donald Trump from every conceivable angle. On Thursday Colbert told his audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York that his popular late night TV show is being cancelled. “Yeah, I share your feelings,” he said in response to a chorus of boos.

The CBS network insisted that it had made “a purely financial decision” to wind up The Late Show next year. But others are not so sure. Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator who was a guest on Thursday’s show, tweeted: “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”