Not even Stephen Colbert can survive the changes that are underway at large media organizations. CBS announced earlier this week that the network is canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a program that has existed in some form for 33 years—the last 10 of which were helmed by Colbert.
He's not exiting the airwaves immediately; the show will limp on for another 10 months. Still, the timing of the news has raised the suspicions of liberal viewers. CBS' parent company, Paramount, is attempting to sell to the media company Skydance: a merger that requires the approval of the Trump administration's Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (President Donald Trump recently sued CBS after he claimed the network improperly edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle. The network settled for $16 million.)
Paramount does not want to anger Trump right now, out of fear that his FCC could kill the sale. Perhaps axing a notoriously anti-Trump comedian was another component of the deal—or at the very least, Paramount hoped it might please the administration.
