Shock for viewers in USA: The flagship “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” throws a curtain in May 2026, as officially announced by CBS television, citing “financial reasons”.
Steven Colbert himself was informed on Wednesday night (16.07.2025) and announced the news of the end of the popular US broadcast in his audience on Thursday.
“It’s not just the end of our show, it’s the end of the late show on CBS. There is no replacement. All this is just disappearing, “he said excited.
Stephen Colbert announcing to his audience that his show has been cancelled.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 18, 2025
Falling the spectacle of the Talk Show and increased production costs have led to restrictions on all major shows, such as “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, which are now shown only four times a week, while CBS did not replace James Corden in “Late Late Show” His departure in 2023.
Media companies are becoming increasingly cautious about the high cost of broadcasting, while young spectators trying to attract are watching most of them through digital videos, according to Variety.
In its official announcement, CBS argued: “Steven Colbert is irreplaceable. We will withdraw The Late Show in May 2026. It is exclusively a financial decision, irrelevant to the quality or performance of the broadcast. “
Colbert, who took over the presentation in 2015, became well known as Donald Trump’s severe critic on American television.
Complaints about political pressures
However, although CBS stated that the decision was purely financial, an article of Politico He says this announcement comes after Colbert’s reviews on the agreement concluded between President Donald Trump and Paramount Global, the CBS parent company.
Paramount agreed to pay $ 16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit for an interview with the 60 Minutes – a case that many legal as unfounded.
The decision also came as Paramount is negotiating a merger with Skydance Media.
In the meantime, the Democratic Senator in California, Adam Sif, complained via X: “If the CBS canceled the late show for political reasons, the public must know it”, leaving spikes for a possible correlation with the Mammoth deal with Trump.
Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled.
If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.
– Adam Schiff (@senadam ship) July 17, 2025