President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Friday after learning that CBS had canceled “The Late Show,” hosted by leftist comedian and political commentator Stephen Colbert.
CBS announced on Thursday that the late-night talk show, which started with host David Letterman in 1993, will air its final episode in May 2026, nearly 11 years after Colbert took over.
“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
Trump has ripped Colbert in the past, calling him “very boring” and “a total loser.”
“He is not funny, which he gets paid far too much to be, he is not wise, he is VERY BORING, and his show is dying from a complete lack of viewers,” Trump said last September.
Colbert, whom CBS said “will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television,” often used his monologues to take shots at Trump and his supporters. In March, Colbert ripped President Trump’s address to Congress, saying, “Trump’s first address to Congress was much like his first six weeks: filled with useful lies and applauded by useless idiots.”
Earlier this week, Colbert criticized CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for agreeing to pay a $16 million settlement to Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump said was deceptively edited to help the Democratic presidential nominee. Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe,” adding, “I don’t know if anything will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
None of Colbert’s segments were more roundly mocked than his COVID “Vax-Scene” bit in 2021, in which the comedian danced on stage with four people dressed up as syringes.
Colbert addressed CBS’s decision to cancel his show on Thursday night, telling his audience, “Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending ‘The Late Show’ in May.”
“I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he added.
Democrats lamented the move by CBS, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was Colbert’s headliner on Thursday night.
“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,” Schiff said in a post on X.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery,” added Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
