UFC CEO Dana White announced on Monday that the pay-per-view model is going away following a &#8220;historic deal&#8221; between the UFC and Paramount, which owns CBS.
Paramount announced on Monday morning that it struck a seven-year $7.7 billion deal with the UFC, giving CBS and Paramount+ exclusive broadcast and streaming rights to one of America&#8217;s fastest-growing sports. Under the new deal — which will go into effect next year — Paramount will have access to all 30 UFC Fight Nights, along with 13 additional major UFC events, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/business/paramount-ufc-fights-deal.html">reported</a>. Some of the UFC&#8217;s top matchups will be broadcast on CBS, and all of the fights will be available with a subscription to Paramount+, with no additional pay-per-view fees.
White celebrated the news, writing in a <a href="https://x.com/danawhite/status/1954876574404366488">statement</a>, &#8220;This historic deal with Paramount and CBS is incredible for UFC fans and our athletes. For the first time ever, fans in the US will have access to all UFC content without a Pay-Per-View model, making it affordable and accessible to view the greatest fights on a massive platform.&#8221;
&#8220;This deal puts UFC amongst the biggest sports in the world,&#8221; White added. &#8220;The exposure provided by the Paramount and CBS networks under this new structure is a huge win for our athletes and anyone who watches and loves this sport.&#8221;
The deal marks one of the first major moves from Paramount&#8217;s new CEO, David Ellison, who became the company&#8217;s head honcho just last week after his company, Skydance Media, took over Paramount.
“We could not be more excited about this,” Ellison told the Times. “From my perspective, the U.F.C. is really a unicorn sports asset.”
“We think it is going to be incredibly material in terms of increasing our engagement on Paramount+, driving subscriber acquisitions and also meaningfully growing revenue across the business,” Ellison added.
Since 2019, the UFC has been broadcast and streamed on ESPN and ESPN+. Under that deal, ESPN paid $550 million per year for rights to UFC coverage. The ESPN-UFC streaming model was highly criticized by fans who had to pay both a subscription fee and a pay-per-view fee for the biggest fights. To watch fights on ESPN+, UFC fans were charged a monthly subscription for the Disney streaming service on top of a pay-per-view fee for some of the biggest fights.
Under the UFC-Paramount deal, fans will pay for a Paramount+ subscription, which is $8 per month for a basic subscription or $13 per month for a premium subscription, and there won&#8217;t be any additional fees for marquee fights.
“For our fan base, this is going to be much easier, much more accessible, much less expensive, and something that is going to ultimately attract and keep a lot of subscribers with Paramount+,” said Mark Shapiro, the president of TKO, which owns the UFC.

Dana White

Goodbye, PPV: Dana White Drops Major UFC Bombshell After ‘Historic Deal’ With CBS

Goodbye, Pay-Per-View: Dana White Drops Major UFC News After 'Historic Deal' With CBS

ESPN

Paramount

Sports

George Cheeks, the president and CEO of CBS, discussed the cancellation of “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert at a press conference on Thursday. His statements come on the same day that Paramount Global and Skydance Media finalized their $8.4 billion merger.
“The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline,” Cheeks said following the deal closing, per <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/08/cbs-george-cheeks-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-cancelation-1236481494/">Deadline</a>. “We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show, unfortunately the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going.”
“I know [Skydance] is going to invest, but they’re going to invest cautiously and wisely, so for me, managing this business is really important for me to double down the area’s road in broadcast intriguing, which really is primetime and sports,” the CBS exec continued.
Despite speculation from mainstream media and Colbert himself that the cancellation was politically motivated, Cheeks said it all came down to money.
He didn’t give the exact amount that “The Late Show” was losing, but said during the press conference that it was a “significant” amount in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
“At the end of the day, it just wasn’t sustainable to continue,” Cheeks concluded.
Last month, Paramount Global agreed to a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit Trump had brought that accused the media outlet of election interference. The lawsuit stemmed from an interview CBS News’s “60 Minutes” conducted with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris one month before the 2024 election. The lawsuit alleged that the interview was edited to make it seem more coherent than it really was.
“People have been speculating about the timing of this decision from Paramount, and they’re pointing out that last Monday, just two days before my cancellation, I delivered a blistering monologue in which I showed the courage to have a mustache,” Colbert said <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-f-yourself-colbert-unleashes-anti-trump-tirade-amid-report-his-show-loses-40m-annually?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98Go+F***+Yourself%E2%80%99%3A+Colbert+Unleashes+Anti-Trump+Tirade+Amid+Report+His+Show+Loses+%2440M+Annually">during an episode</a> that aired just after news of the upcoming cancellation dropped. “When obviously CBS saw my upper lip and boom, canceled. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is stashism.”
“They clarified that the cancellation was purely a financial decision. But how could it purely be a financial decision if ‘The Late Show’ is number one in ratings? A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff’s parents and spouses,” Colbert went on. 
He also accused CBS insiders of leaking financial details to justify the cancellation.
“Over the weekend, somebody at CBS followed up their gracious press release with a gracious anonymous leak saying they pulled the plug on our show because of losses pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year. $40 million is a big number. I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh, yeah,” he said, seemingly referencing the amount of the settlement.

Stephen Colbert

CBS Exec Comments On ‘Late Show’ Cancellation, Said It ‘Wasn’t Sustainable’

CBS CEO Comments On 'Late Show' Cancellation, Said It 'Wasn't Sustainable'

Entertainment

Television

The following article was originally posted on “<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a>” on Substack.
* * *
In October, 2015, Vanity Fair magazine ran a feature story about television’s late night comedy talk shows. It was headlined “Host-to-Host Sensation.” The accompanying fold-out photo of ten top talk show comics caused a sensation of its own. Much imaginary ink was as if spilled over the shocking fact that all the hosts were men. But, of course, there was nothing shocking about that. Women aren’t funny. Even the funny ones aren’t that funny. As many another foolishly honest man has pointed out, women don’t need to be funny, not at a professional level at least. Overlooked, unathletic, angry high school boys need to be funny. If they’re not funny, their genetic strain will likely die with them. That’s the kind of urgent motivation that’s required to create a grown man with the insane courage to make jokes onstage and risk being met with dead silence.
But there was something that really was shocking about the Vanity Fair picture, something very few people who were not me bothered to mention. Every single comedy talk show host depicted — all ten of them — had exactly the same political opinions. They were all Left-wingers, and they would all come to detest and despise Donald Trump.
Now, you might say that was to be expected. The Venn Diagram of overlooked, unathletic, angry little men and Left-wing men is basically a circle with a small crescent of Nazis bulging out of one side. But what was shocking — and really kind of despicable — was this: the corporations who platformed these angry little funny leftists apparently saw no reason, financial or otherwise, to hire anyone to entertain the half of the audience who held more conservative views. Their idea seemed to be that they could make all the profits they needed by amusing one half of the audience at the expense of the other. They must have thought that was good business. They must have thought it was morally acceptable. They must have thought: “Screw you, half of America. We hurl disdain in your general direction!”
Well, strange to say, this business model did not perform all that well over time.
Listen, I’m a Christian man. I try very hard not to take pleasure in the misfortunes of my philosophical opponents. But in this case, I just can’t help it. The smug entitlement of an elite monoculture that despised the common man and woman — the men and women who, in the words of George Bailey, “do most of the working and paying and living and dying” in this country — was just begging for a comeuppance. And that uppance has come.
Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on CBS has been cancelled and will go off the air next May. The show was making 40 million fewer dollars a year than the 130 million dollars it cost to produce. And while Colbert’s paltry ratings were the highest among his Left-wing colleagues, he and they were regularly being beaten by Greg Gutfeld, the libertarian smart aleck on Fox News. That’s cable, where the shows reach around half of the network audience, and where production costs are considerably lower.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
Now, Colbert was not born talentless. His Jon Stewart spin-off show, The Colbert Report, in which he satirized conservative commentators like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, was often amusing. But once he landed the CBS late night spot in 2015, the laughter died. Maybe it was the big money. Maybe it was the Trump Derangement-fueled rage. Maybe it was being flattered by hand-picked audiences cheering wildly for unfunny rants. But something went sour inside Colbert. Lines like “The only thing Trump’s mouth is good for is being Putin’s cock holster,” might have seemed hilarious to the kind of ten-year-olds who laugh through their noses. But to adults — especially adults weary of having self-satisfied show biz millionaires insult them with a wholly undeserved tone of moral superiority — they seemed a tad juvenile.
But Colbert’s abilities are beside the point. Stephen Colbert was bad for America. Not on his own, maybe. On his own, he was just another Hollywood putz who mistakenly thought he had something important to say. But as a brick in a solid wall of Left-wing entertainment, he did more damage than any laughter could rectify.
Networks broadcast on airwaves that are a public trust. Their stations are licensed by a federal agency, the FCC. If the monologues on network late night comedy shows can be said to have any kind of higher purpose, surely it has something to do with bringing us together, helping us laugh in the evening at the politics and passions that drive us apart during the day. If you ridicule Barack Obama, then I’ll be willing to see what’s ridiculous about Donald Trump. If you make jokes about Ted Cruz, then maybe leftists will be able to find something funny about AOC. Fair both-sides comedy has the power to soften our angry certainties with self-awareness and humility.
But if instead, you declare late night a one political party zone, what comity can your comedy produce? If you think a crafty Chicago machine pol like Obama is so perfect that there is “not a flaw or hook that you can caricature,” (as one Saturday Night Live writer put it), why should I be amused when you hammer Trump for his many peccadillos night after night after night?
During the monologue in which Colbert announced his cancellation, he turned to the camera and told President Trump, “Go f&#8212; yourself.” But hadn’t he been saying exactly that for these many years to all the tens of millions of Americans who voted for Trump, who thought him, in their good will and wisdom, a better choice than the candidates Colbert supports?
What exactly did Colbert think he knew that allowed him to dismiss so many of his countrymen? Insult each night so many of his countrymen? Disparage and belittle so many of his countrymen by continually mocking their candidates while at the same time using his mouth as a cock holster for any lying, corrupt, incompetent, third rate Democrat lucky enough to come on his show?
What angel visited Stephen in the quiet of his cultural sequestration and told him it would be all right for him — and for every single one of his corporate comedy colleagues — to consider those tens of millions of Americans as nothing more than the butts of their jokes? If they had intended to convince those voters to change sides, wouldn’t it have been wiser to spread the jokes around even just a little? But that wasn’t their intention. They despised those voters. They hectored them out of the audience. They sent them a clear message: You are not worthy of being amused.
And, of course, it’s not just the comedians. It’s every morally flatulent entertainer who ever accepted his or her Oscar or Emmy or Grammy with a speech denouncing the politicians half the electorate prefers. As the writer tells the actress in the classic show biz film All About Eve: “I shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself as a mind.”
For more than twenty years, I’ve been making speeches to conservatives, telling them they should pay more attention to the arts. To movies, to novels, to music and so on. I quote James Joyce to them: artists “forge the uncreated conscience” of a people. I quote Percy Shelley: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” I tell them that complaining about movies and music and publishing will get them nowhere. The arts can only be redeemed by those who love them.
But maybe I was talking to the wrong people. Maybe I should have gone to the artists themselves. The arts aren’t leftist by nature, but they are liberal by nature. They find worth and dignity even in the Other. In the West, they always have. The Greeks mourned for the Trojan women. The Crusaders sang the nobility of their Muslim foes. Shakespeare reinvented the stock Evil Jew of the medieval Easter Play by granting him his full humanity.
Is there nothing of that spirit left in Hollywood? Or in publishing? Where conservative actors and writers have to talk in whispers? Where even to be a white male is to risk being barred from your vocation? No. They will not even award the Pulitzer to an iconic photograph depicting Trump’s courage under fire. They will not even put our glamorous First Lady on the covers of their fashion magazines. Ideology has made our cultural gatekeepers petty and small and mean.
Well, forgive me if that meanness has made me mean as well. The backlash is coming and has come, and I am glad to see it. With all my striving toward good will, the best I can muster for Stephen Colbert is to repeat to him the immortal words of a man more relevant, more daringly counter-cultural and, yes, a whole lot funnier than he is: “You’re fired.”
* * *
The following article was originally posted on “<a href="https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Jerusalem</a>” on Substack.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1">After That, The Dark,</a> is now available for Pre-Order. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert Was Bad For America

Andrew Klavan

comedian

Comedy

Woke Culture

President Donald Trump took to social media on Tuesday to deny any involvement in the ouster of CBS late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, whose stint on &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; is set to end in May of 2026.
Trump made the <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114938657898917536">comment</a> first on his Truth Social platform, arguing that Colbert&#8217;s downfall was not the result of any demand he made or any action he took — instead saying that the longtime host had become &#8220;a victim to himself&#8221; because he wasn&#8217;t funny enough to get decent ratings.
&#8220;Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!&#8221; Trump posted. &#8220;The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!&#8221;
Trump cited reports that Colbert, despite bringing in some $60 million in advertising for his show, had operated at a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-f-yourself-colbert-unleashes-anti-trump-tirade-amid-report-his-show-loses-40m-annually">$40 million loss</a> because &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; had an annual price tag of $100 million.
He then went on to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jimmy-kimmel-is-next-trump-keeps-pouring-salt-into-open-wound-after-colbert-ouster">repeat his claim</a> that Colbert would not be the only casualty with regard to late-night comedy, saying that comedians Jimmy Kimmel (&#8220;The Jimmy Kimmel Show&#8221; on ABC) and Jimmy Fallon (&#8220;The Tonight Show&#8221; on NBC) would be the next dominos to fall.
&#8220;Next up will be an even less talented Jimmy Kimmel, and then, a weak, and very insecure, Jimmy Fallon,&#8221; he predicted. &#8220;The only real question is, who will go first? Show Biz and Television is a very simple business. If you get Ratings, you can say or do anything. If you don’t, you always become a victim. Colbert became a victim to himself, the other two will follow.&#8221;
Trump was responding to a number of people who have attempted to claim that Colbert was let go because of the ongoing merger with Paramount or due to the lawsuit that was just settled between Trump and the network over a creatively-edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Senator <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-question-my-integrity-spartacus-returns-in-dramatic-senate-floor-showdown-for-jersey">Cory Booker</a> (D-NJ) even claimed on the Senate floor on Tuesday that Colbert had been pulled off the air — despite the fact that he will remain with the network and continue to host the show until next May — because he made jokes about Trump.

Donald Trump

Trump Denies Responsibility For Colbert Ouster: He ‘Became A Victim To Himself’

Trump Denies Responsibility For Colbert Ouster: He 'Became A Victim To Himself'

Media

Politics

You can’t say Stephen Colbert didn’t try.
“The Late Show” host spent years spreading every anti-Trump narrative in the media. The “Very Fine People” speech. Russian Collusion. The Ballad of Stormy Daniels. Pee-Pee tapes. If it was critical of the president, Colbert pounced and seized.
True? False? Fake News? No matter. Colbert was on the case, weaponizing his nightly broadcast as an in-kind contribution to the DNC.
Except it didn’t work. Trump returned to the Oval Office earlier this year. And, now, Colbert won’t be around the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City to watch Trump complete his second term.
<div id="attachment_952651" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952651" class="size-large wp-image-952651" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-864x576.jpg" alt="People participate in a protest titled 'Colbert stays! Trump must go!' outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City on July 21, 2025. &quot;The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,&quot; a staple of late-night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump as &quot;a big fat bribe.&quot; (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225461053.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images</div>
“The Late Show’s” cancellation sent shock waves through Hollywood. Supporters decry the decision, ignoring the cold, hard math behind the move. Reports say the show loses CBS $40 million (or more) a year.
Why would any business keep a show on the air for that price?
“The Late Show” became free therapy sessions for those who still can’t believe the country elected the real estate mogul – twice. They tuned in to hear their beliefs reflected back at them, aided and abetted by Colbert’s smug delivery.
It must have felt empowering to hear him call Trump Vladimir Putin’s [bleep] holster at the height of the Russian collusion scandal. Did it matter that it was all built upon a lie?
Apparently not. And Colbert never felt compelled to apologize for misleading his audience.
The Colbert we see today isn’t the one we were first introduced to on, where else, “The Daily Show.” His shtick at the time, expanded via “The Colbert Report,” was mocking a Bill O’Reilly-style commentator.
He excelled at the role, earning some respect even among right-leaning viewers. He put the funny first, much like he did as part of the “Strangers with Candy” sitcom years earlier.
<div id="attachment_952649" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952649" class="size-large wp-image-952649" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 8: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (L) talks to television personality Stephen Colbert during a taping of Comedy Central's &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University on December 8, 2014 in Washington, DC. This is President Obama's third appearance on &quot;The Colbert Report&quot; that will broadcast its final show on Dec. 18. (Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-460161346.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images</div>
He seemed a smart choice to succeed David Letterman on “The Late Show” in 2015, but he initially struggled in the ratings against “The Tonight Show” juggernaut. Then, Colbert found his inner Bernie Sanders and turned the showcase into a hard-Left platform.
The move paid dividends. “The Late Show” soon became the ratings leader before the rise of Fox News’ “Gutfeld!”
The shift didn’t help the show’s longevity. The bill has come due. Why?
He neglected to heed the Ghost of Johnny Carson. The late-night king knew well enough to mock both sides of the aisle and have fun doing so.
The joy seeped from Colbert’s performance. So did any sense of balance. Now, you’re as likely to see a “Pod Save America” host on his show as a Tom Cruise or Sydney Sweeney.
Progressive viewers may vote for Sen. Adam Schiff, but on a charisma scale of 1 to 10 he’s a 3, at best.
What happens next? Colbert vows to go down fighting, slamming President Trump with every sketch and monologue in his waning days. Oh, like he’s done the past nine or so years? The Legacy Media will <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2025/07/24/trump-epstein-files-late-night-hosts/85356533007/">amplify them all</a>, hoping to sway the public against Trump beyond their cartoonishly biased reportage.
Reporters will miss crafting headlines like this as much as they miss Colbert: &#8220;Late-night guys are giddy with Trump and Epstein jokes after latest developments.&#8221;
How can Colbert possibly do more to attack the Trump administration at this point? He can’t, unless he takes a page from “The View” playbook.
Unhinged conspiracies. Fear-mongering on steroids. Undisciplined rants that cause the studio audience to clap like seals and sane viewers to watch their jaws go slack. That’s all Colbert has left, and he risks losing whatever cultural heft he has remaining if he goes down that road.
Does he really want to start sharing “Legal Notes” like “The View” does to protect himself from lawsuits?
<div id="attachment_952655" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-952655" class="size-large wp-image-952655" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-864x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK CITY - JULY 21: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Monday's July 21, 2025 show. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2225551799.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images</div>
Plus, he’s only 61. Surely, he wants to keep working in comedy once “The Late Show” expires. He’s a natural fit for video podcasting, where the modest budgetary requirements all but guarantee his success.
Sane progressives will see right through any “View”-sized transition, meaning he’ll peel off some of his base along the way. Maybe the show will lose more than $40 million over the next 10 months.
The upside for Colbert’s late-night competitors? With “The Late Show” out of the way, they’ll be more progressive viewers for them to attract, at least on paper. No Colbert? Let’s see how Jimmy Kimmel is attacking President Trump today.
It’ll be a sugar high, at best.
Late-night TV is dying. Blame YouTube, the rise of funny social media accounts or comedians who actively chased away more than half the country with their polemics. Colbert is far from alone on that front. Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel all lean to the Left. And they kissed conservative viewers goodbye some time ago.
“<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/5612703584001">Not good riddance but riddance,”</a> as Kimmel infamously said about his shift to the hard Left.
The format likely would perish with or without Colbert’s handiwork. We stopped collecting 8-track tapes some time ago, too. His Trump obsession, and fueling insults like “Clapter” to the lexicon, a term for jokes meant to spark applause, not laughter, made matters worse.
The biggest irony? While audiences no longer find Colbert’s shtick funny, a certain two-term president is having the last laugh.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Late Night Collapse: Colbert’s Fall And The Death Of Balanced Comedy

Late Night Collapse: Colbert’s Fall and the Death of Balanced Comedy

David Letterman

Democrats

Jon Stewart

Leftists

Legacy Media

President Trump

Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert is already out of a job come next May with the imminent cancellation of &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; — but if he keeps delivering network-blasting monologues, he might push CBS News to cut him loose earlier than they planned.
Colbert took direct aim at the network over claims that his termination was purely a financial matter — rooted in the fact that his show had put up a net loss of $40 million — and argued that his ouster was proof that CBS was “morally bankrupt.”
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Colbert is going scorched earth on Paramount/CBS; calls them “morally bankrupt” over Trump settlements.
Lmao.
His employers have 10 more months of this to enjoy. <a href="https://t.co/EAkiGMKJ9n">pic.twitter.com/EAkiGMKJ9n</a>
&mdash; Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1948357773563253053?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Colbert suggested that the network because it just paid out millions — to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over an edited interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on “60 Minutes” — and then let him go for “financial reasons.”
“That means by bending the knee, they lost like $40 million this year!” Colbert declared. “They better watch out. They might get canceled … for purely financial reasons.”
The audience laughed and booed as he continued, “The present owners are denying that additional $20 million, which I hope is true, because could you imagine how angry people would be? Last year, Paramount laid off 2000 employees — then cut another several hundred just last month. Firing that many people and then handing over $36 million to a guy who’s putting your neighbors in alligator camps, all because of a lawsuit that your own lawyers said was completely without merit.”
“If that’s true, it would make CBS look morally bankrupt,” he insisted, adding, “Also bankrupt.”
Colbert warned several days earlier that the network’s one mistake was simple: “They left me alive.”
He said at the time that because he already knew his time was up in May, he no longer felt bound to censor his thoughts on the network that was letting him go or his opinions about President Trump — and he warned the audience that he did not intend to hold anything back in the months ahead.
With his tenure already shortened, however, the question remains just how many shots he will be allowed to take at the network that — for the time being, at least — gives him a platform.

Stephen Colbert Practically Begs CBS To Fire Him Sooner In Latest Network-Blasting Monologue

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on Tuesday responded to the leftist uproar over CBS canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,&#8221; pointing out that the negative reactions to the program&#8217;s demise are one-sided.
&#8220;The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing,” Carr wrote on X. “They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics.” 
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The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing.
They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1947630093540724934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Many commenters on the social media platform agreed. 
“They ARE losing a loyal spokesperson. They don&#8217;t care about the economics, they care about the messaging,” one account <a href="https://x.com/JeffMarshalek/status/1947965661474414814">replied</a>.
“Socialists don’t understand economics,” another <a href="https://x.com/jackfarrington/status/1947652185497444580">wrote</a>.
“Their desperation is pathetic and (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is terminal,” a third commenter <a href="https://x.com/DogRightGirl/status/1947636188266877113">chimed in</a>.
CBS announced last week that it was canceling “The Late Show” after the upcoming season, which has inspired outsized reactions from the Left. The network described the move as a “purely financial decision.” A recent report stated that the program was losing $40 million annually. 
Colbert went off on an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-f-yourself-colbert-unleashes-anti-trump-tirade-amid-report-his-show-loses-40m-annually">expletive-laced tirade</a> during his monologue Monday night, blasting President Donald Trump and CBS. Colbert mentioned how the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, paid Trump a $16 million settlement earlier this month after being accused of election interference. 
“People have been speculating about the timing of this decision from Paramount, and they’re pointing out that last Monday, just two days before my cancellation, I delivered a blistering monologue in which I showed the courage to have a mustache,” said Colbert. “When obviously CBS saw my upper lip and boom, canceled. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is stashism.”
“They clarified that the cancellation was purely a financial decision. But how could it purely be a financial decision if ‘The Late Show’ is number one in ratings? A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff’s parents and spouses,” Colbert went on. 
Next, he accused CBS insiders of leaking financial details to justify the cancellation.
“Over the weekend, somebody at CBS followed up their gracious press release with a gracious anonymous leak saying they pulled the plug on our show because of losses pegged between $40 million and $50 million a year. $40 million is a big number. I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh, yeah,” he said, seemingly referencing the amount of the settlement.
Trump has since said that he anticipates an additional $20 million in advertising and public service announcements after new owners take control of Paramount.

Brendan Carr

FCC Chief Mocks Left’s Colbert Meltdown: It’s ‘Like They’re Losing A Loyal DNC Spokesperson’

FCC Chair Reacts To Leftist Outrage Over Colbert Cancellation: 'Quite Revealing'

President Donald Trump crowed over the settlement in his lawsuit against &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; CBS, and Paramount on Tuesday — which stemmed from a selectively edited interview of former Vice President Kamala Harris — calling it a &#8220;BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN!&#8221;
Trump first shared the news in a post on his Truth Social platform, where he also took aim at ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos over their recent payout in a similar lawsuit.
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— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1947721324815909287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;BREAKING NEWS! We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our Historic Lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount,&#8221; Trump posted. &#8220;Just like ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and its Corporate Owners knew that they defrauded the American People, and were desperate to settle.&#8221;
&#8220;Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 Million Dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars,&#8221; he added. &#8220;This is another in a long line of VICTORIES over the Fake News Media, who we are holding to account for their widespread fraud and deceit.&#8221;
Trump went on to list a number of other media outlets that were on his radar — against some of whom he has already threatened to take action. &#8220;The Wall Street Journal, The Failing New York Times, The Washington Post, MSDNC, CNN, and all other Mainstream Media Liars, are ON NOTICE that the days of them being allowed to deceive the American People are OVER. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!&#8221;
Just one day earlier, over a story linking Trump to a birthday letter he allegedly wrote to the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — which he&#8217;s repeatedly said is &#8220;fake&#8221; — the White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-boots-wsj-from-press-pool-over-report-on-fake-epstein-letter">barred</a> The Wall Street Journal from the press pool during Trump&#8217;s trip to Scotland.
&#8220;As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,&#8221; Leavitt told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/21/journal-removed-white-house-pool-epstein-00465548" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico</a> at the time. &#8220;Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.&#8221;

President Donald Trump

‘BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN!’: Trump Crows Over Settlement In CBS, Paramount Lawsuit

'BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN!': Trump Crows Over Settlement In CBS, Paramount Lawsuit

60 Minutes

Kamala Harris

Lawsuit

Leftists are reacting to the news that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will broadcast its last episode in May 2026.
Many comments on social media responded to Colbert&#8217;s posting of a monologue on Instagram, announcing the news.
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“The greatest to ever do it,” former Late Show band leader Jon Batiste wrote in reply. 
“My admiration and appreciation for you is bottomless. Excited to see what other brilliance you put into the world,” filmmaker and producer Judd Apatow said. 
“I am so upset about this. I need more information. We love you,” journalist Katie Couric wrote.
“Snow White” star Rachel Zegler also shared her thoughts, writing, “I am extremely sad. I adore you, Stephen.”
“Love you Stephen. This is absolute bulls***, and I for one am looking forward to the next 10 months of shows,” Adam Scott of “Severance” fame added.
Fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel also <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/18/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-blasts-cbs-over-the-late-show-cancellation-as-he-supports-pal-stephen-colbert/">reacted</a> to the news, sharing in his Instagram Stories, “Love you Stephen. F*** you and all your Sheldons CBS.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) questioned if CBS’s motives for the cancellation had anything to do with politics.
“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,” Warren <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1946003619821580369">wrote</a> in an X post. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) had similar suspicions. 
“Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled,” he <a href="https://x.com/SenAdamSchiff/status/1945991349339042169">wrote</a>. “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”
The cancellation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-cans-ultra-leftist-stephen-colberts-late-show-all-just-going-away">announcement</a> marked the end of a nearly 11-year run that Colbert has had hosting “The Late Show,” which first began in 1993 under the former host, David Letterman.
The network said that it is scrapping “The Late Show” franchise and will not move on to another host after Colbert.
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television,” CBS said in a statement.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” it continued.

Leftists Lash Out After CBS Cancels Colbert, Kimmel Tells Network ‘F You’ And Your Sitcoms

Leftists Lash Out After CBS Cancels Colbert, Kimmel Tells Network 'F You' And Your Sitcoms

Jimmy Kimmel

U.S.

President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Friday after learning that CBS had canceled &#8220;The Late Show,&#8221; hosted by leftist comedian and political commentator Stephen Colbert.
CBS <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-cans-ultra-leftist-stephen-colberts-late-show-all-just-going-away?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=CBS+Cans+Ultra-Leftist+Stephen+Colbert%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98Late+Show%E2%80%99%3A+%E2%80%98All+Just+Going+Away%E2%80%99">announced</a> 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.
&#8220;I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114874422468516376">wrote</a> on Truth Social. &#8220;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.&#8221;
Trump has ripped Colbert in the past, calling him &#8220;very boring&#8221; and &#8220;a total loser.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113196110603948496">said</a> last September.
Colbert, whom CBS said &#8220;will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television,&#8221; often used his monologues to take shots at Trump and his supporters. In March, Colbert ripped President Trump&#8217;s address to Congress, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/mar/05/colbert-trump-speech-congress">saying</a>, “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&#8217;s parent company, Paramount, for agreeing to pay a $16 million settlement to Trump over a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump said was deceptively edited to help the Democratic presidential nominee. Colbert called the settlement a &#8220;big fat bribe,&#8221; 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.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Paramount’s Trump Settlement: A Big Fat Bribe | Jeffrey Epstein Never Dies | FIFA Trophy Row" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zzvx3L3DQb8?start=127&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
None of Colbert&#8217;s segments were more roundly mocked than his COVID &#8220;Vax-Scene&#8221; bit in 2021, in which the comedian danced on stage with four people dressed up as syringes.
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Colbert addressed CBS&#8217;s decision to cancel his show on Thursday night, telling his audience, &#8220;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 &#8216;The Late Show&#8217; in May.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m not being replaced. This is all just going away,&#8221; he added.
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Democrats lamented the move by CBS, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was Colbert&#8217;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 <a href="https://x.com/SenAdamSchiff/status/1945991349339042169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1945991349339042169%7Ctwgr%5E6994272537ceff05d34bbf6eb721334ab9da046f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fcbs-cans-ultra-leftist-stephen-colberts-late-show-all-just-going-away">said</a> in a post on X.
&#8220;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,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1946003619821580369">added</a> Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). &#8220;America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.&#8221;

Donald Trump/Stephen Colbert

Trump Celebrates CBS Axing Stephen Colbert’s Show: ‘I Hear Jimmy Kimmel Is Next’

Executive

CBS will pull the plug on late-night comedian Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” next year in a “purely financial decision,” the network announced on Thursday.
Colbert’s late-night comedy news show will air its final episode in May 2026, according to a statement released by CBS. The announcement marked the end of a nearly 11-year run Colbert has had hosting “The Late Show,” which first began in 1993 under former host David Letterman.
The network said that it is scrapping “The Late Show” franchise and will not move on to another host after Colbert.
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television,” CBS said in a statement.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” it continued.
Colbert announced the news from his host chair at the top of his Thursday episode.
“I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” Colbert said.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who was a guest on Colbert’s program on Thursday night, suggested on social media that the cancelation of “The Late Show” may be about more than purely “financial reasons.”
“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.
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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.
&mdash; Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenAdamSchiff/status/1945991349339042169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The end of “The Late Show” comes as late-night comedy programming has seen a severe decline in recent years. Colbert’s show has seen a significant <a href="https://fortune.com/2024/10/25/late-night-tv-shows-fading-colbert-leading-late-audience-drop-32/">decline</a>.
CBS saluted Colbert in its statement announcing an end to “The Late Show” after more than three decades.
“The show has been #1 in late night for nine straight seasons; Stephen&#8217;s comedy resonates daily across digital and social media; and the broadcast is a staple of the nation’s zeitgeist,” said CBS. “The accomplishments of ‘THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT’ are memorable and significant in performance, quality and stature. With much gratitude, we look forward to honoring Stephen and celebrating the show over the next 10 months alongside its millions of fans and viewers.”

CBS Cans Ultra-Leftist Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’: ‘All Just Going Away’

Adam Schiff

CBS News and Stations President Wendy McMahon announced on Monday that she is resigning over disagreements with the network as CBS&#8217; parent company, Paramount, looks to settle a massive lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump.
McMahon said her time with the network was &#8220;a privilege and joy,&#8221; but added that recent months have been &#8220;challenging,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/media/cbs-news-chief-steps-down-over-trump-tensions-rcna207700" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a>. Her resignation comes as Paramount moves closer to settling a $20 billion lawsuit brought by Trump, which alleges that &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to cover up her poor answer while she was running for president. Paramount&#8217;s controlling shareholder and chair, Shari Redstone, wants to settle the lawsuit as she also <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-28/behind-the-60-minutes-upheaval-a-big-merger-seeking-approval" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeks</a> the Trump administration&#8217;s approval to sell her company to the entertainment company, Skydance.
&#8220;It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,&#8221; McMahon wrote in a memo to CBS News staff. &#8220;It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.&#8221;
McMahon, who took over as CBS News and Stations president in August 2023, put herself in the crosshairs of Paramount executives with her support of former longtime &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; executive producer Bill Owens, who resigned last month, citing a lack of control over the direction of the stalwart news program, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/business/media/cbs-60-minutes-trump-wendy-mcmahon.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The leadership at Paramount was reportedly growing anxious with how the show reported on the Trump administration.
Redstone also slammed CBS News leadership last October after it reprimanded “CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil for asking Left-wing activist Ta-Nehisi Coates tough questions about the Israel-Gaza conflict. McMahon informed Dokoupil that he had violated &#8220;the preproduction process where questions are run through Race and Culture and Standards and Practice.&#8221; Redstone <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/business/media/ta-nehisi-coates-cbs-interview-shari-redstone.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said publicl</a>y that CBS News&#8217; decision to reprimand the anchor was &#8220;a mistake.&#8221;
“I think we all agree that this was not handled correctly,” Redstone said.
McMahon will continue to work as CBS News president for a transition period that will last &#8220;a few weeks,&#8221; according to George Cheeks, the chief executive of CBS. McMahon will be replaced by Tom Cibrowski, who recently joined CBS News after working for ABC News for 30 years in multiple roles, and Jennifer Mitchell, who currently &#8220;oversees 27 CBS-owned stations and manages stations operations in 17 markets.&#8221;

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