The end of May will bring about a big change to the 2026 TV schedule, and to those of successive years, as CBS will officially be out of the late night talk show biz. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to conclude on May 21, ten months after CBS officially canceled the long-running staple previously hosted by David Letterman. Some fans are expecting potentially calamitous fireworks upon his eventual exit, but Colbert’s former Comedy Central partner in crime has other thoughts.
Emmy-winning writer Ben Karlin spent seven years on The Daily Show before co-creating The Colbert Report with the titular D.C. native, so he and Colbert obviously have a solid relationship. While appearing on The Daily Beast’s Obsessed podcast to talk about his new series Bait (streaming via Amazon Prime subscription), Karlin was asked for his thoughts on whether the host will bow out in a blaze of politically polarizing glory, or something more traditional. He answered:
