The National Security Advisor during President Donald Trump&#8217;s first term said he was asked to go on CBS&#8217;s “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert in 2024, but only if he would denounce Trump and tell the audience not to vote for him.
Retired United States Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster made the revelation during a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OAiiaiGMVI&amp;list=PLKruweaZqDNetb7uwJF1vS0mzmaTe8Kzg&amp;index=1">episode</a> of the GoodFellows podcast, a weekly Hoover Institution broadcast. Moderator Bill Whalen mentioned that late shows have “drifted to the Left,” which prompted McMaster&#8217;s response.
“When my book ‘At War With Ourselves’ came out, my publicist said, &#8216;Hey, you know, the Stephen Colbert show said you could come on, but if you come on you have to condemn President Trump and recommend that nobody vote for him,&#8217;” McMaster said.
The retired lieutenant general said it was an “easy choice” to decide against the appearance, but noted how it points to the political sway of late-night programs in general.
“I don’t know if it was just a producer or if it was Stephen Colbert directly, but you know, there has been this orthodoxy that has gripped late-night television. So many of these monologues, honestly…they’re just like diatribes. They’re not funny. Which might be why the ratings are going down.”
The controversy over late-night shows and free speech has reached a fever pitch, with leftists crying &#8220;censorship&#8221; and conservatives pointing out that this has been happening to right-wing entertainers for years. ABC&#8217;s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, was briefly taken off the air for spreading false information about Charlie Kirk&#8217;s suspected assassin.
All the other major late-night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jon Stewart, spoke out in support of Kimmel, but are being labeled as hypocrites by anyone who noticed that they had previously been in favor of conservatives being silenced for perceived slights. 
Clips of Kimmel joking about Roseanne Barr&#8217;s show getting canceled for controversial comments went viral just after he was suspended, with followers pointing out the blatant hypocrisy. Kimmel can also be seen celebrating President Trump being banned from X and Tucker Carlson getting fired from Fox News.
McMaster said the answer isn’t government “crackdowns,” but letting low ratings bury the shows.
Representatives from &#8216;The Late Show&#8217; did not respond to a request for comment.

Donald Trump/Stephen Colbert

Free Speech? Former White House Official Says Colbert Would Only Book Him If He Trashed Trump

Former White House Official Says Colbert Would Only Book Him If He Trashed Trump

Entertainment

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

Media

Politics

Stephen Colbert

Television

The entire media and the Left are filled with rage and anguish today — but not over Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
The outpouring of support for Jimmy Kimmel in the media is overwhelming.
Let&#8217;s start with the things we know about Jimmy Kimmel going off the air. Number one, Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s ratings were horrifyingly low. Remember, he was a network television late-night host. And in 2025, only 1.6 million people were viewing his show, being broadcast for free on network TV across the country.
In the advertiser-coveted demographic model, ages 25 to 54, the decline was even more significant. Are you ready for this? In 2015, he had a million viewers in that age range. By 2025, he had, I kid you not, 261,000 people in that age range watching his show.
My <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">show</a> is multiple times larger than Jimmy Kimmel&#8217;s show. Over on Fox in 2025, Greg Gutfeld averaged 3.2 million total viewers, even though it&#8217;s on a cable channel. It’s not even network TV. When it comes to that 25-to-54 demographic, Gutfeld was averaging 381,000 people compared to 261,000 for Kimmel, meaning that Gutfeld was ahead of him by 46%.
So it’s quite possible that a bunch of local affiliates were simply done with Jimmy Kimmel. And when Kimmel decided that he was going to go on air and suggest that the shooter of Charlie Kirk was a MAGA conservative, they&#8217;d had it. Many of these station owners, these local stations, are not owned directly by ABC. They&#8217;re owned by local television networks or by a consortium like Sinclair.
Sinclair Broadcasting happens to be politically conservative in its orientation. There have been longtime rumors of Sinclair trying to launch its own form of Fox News, essentially with its own lineup. So it is perfectly plausible that Sinclair looked at what Jimmy Kimmel said and felt, “You know what? We&#8217;re done. We&#8217;re not interested anymore.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2284-bss-member-exclusive"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a> 
What also happened is that the local affiliates went to ABC. They said, “We don&#8217;t want him on the air.” And ABC responded by basically saying, “If half of our affiliates don&#8217;t want you on the air, we&#8217;re just going to suspend your show because what else are we going to do? You have to provide them with some programming.” 
Sinclair announced it would yank “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its stations until the host apologized directly to Charlie Kirk&#8217;s family and also donated to TPUSA, which, of course, was never going to happen. The company vowed not to return Kimmel&#8217;s show “until formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network&#8217;s commitment to professionalism and accountability.” 
Apparently, Jimmy Kimmel had been planning to double down on his remarks.The reason he was abruptly pulled is because he was planning on doing another monologue the next night where he ripped into MAGA. 
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/09/18/media/ujimmy-kimmel-refused-to-apologize-after-charlie-kirk-outrage/">New York Post</a>:
<blockquote>Late night host Jimmy Kimmel said he was unwilling to apologize for his remarks that blamed MAGA supporters for killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk — and said he was going to double down on attacking President Trump’s backers before he was yanked from the air, according to new reports. Kimmel learned in a phone call from top Disney exec Dana Walden on Wednesday afternoon that his show was being removed indefinitely, Deadline reported, citing sources. During the call, Kimmel reportedly refused to comply with calls from critics and the owners of dozens of ABC affiliate stations for him to apologize. 
Kimmel felt his remarks required no apologies, another source told The Hollywood Reporter. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host also claimed that he was planning to call out his critics for the latest attack on him, all while trying to clarify his comments about Kirk’s death. &#8230; Disney, however, felt that if Kimmel had doubled down on his MAGA comments, the company would have been forced to make a more drastic decision than simply suspending the show, sources told Deadline. </blockquote>
From that fact pattern, it appears that the reason Kimmel was taken off the air is because of organic outrage by viewers, which filtered up to affiliates, and those affiliates went to Disney and ABC. And they said, “We are not interested in having Jimmy Kimmel on.” And Kimmel responded by saying, “I&#8217;m going to double down and attack your viewers.”
No tears for Jimmy Kimmel. 
But the Left has decided that this is the greatest assault on free speech in American history, which is totally crazy considering a man was shot to death for doing free speech one week ago, and they seem to care much more about Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air than Charlie Kirk being murdered live on TV. 
Jon Stewart did a special <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/arts/television/late-night-jimmy-kimmel-suspension.html">weekday break-in</a> on The Daily Show. Of course, he did no such thing last week after Charlie was killed. No special episode about the importance of free speech after a person he disagreed with was shot to death in front of 3,000 people and countless others on the internet. No break-in for that.
But when his friend Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended from the airwaves, he does a break-in. He did a 23-minute monologue suggesting that the State was going to come after everybody on the Left.
Now, one thing I noticed about Jon Stewart is that he is not under that threat. If he thought he was actually under that threat, he wouldn&#8217;t have done this particular lecture.
So he showed up, and his shtick was that the background had been made up to look like a sort of Trumpian Mar-a-Lago. He was wearing a jacket and a red tie to mimic Trump, and a flag pin, so he could claim that he was operating under fear.
Jon Stewart is not operating under fear. Let&#8217;s be real. These were crocodile tears. He was not operating under the assumption that his free speech life is over in the United States. 
Stephen Colbert then <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/arts/television/jimmy-kimmel-david-letterman-stephen-colbert.html">came out and said</a>, “We are all Jimmy Kimmel.” What he really meant was, “I am Jimmy Kimmel.” Even if it turns out Kimmel was taken off the air because of FCC pressure — which I think is very, very doubtful — Stephen Colbert was not taken off the air because of Trump administration pressure. Paramount chief Shari Redstone pointed out that Stephen Colbert&#8217;s cancellation had literally nothing to do with anything government-related. He was taken off because he sucked at his job and cost too much money. 
Comedian Marc Maron <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/marc-maron-patton-oswalt-jimmy-kimmel/">hyperventilated</a>, “This is government censorship. This is the Trump administration coming after people who speak out against him. This is the end of it. If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the Constitution and free speech, this is it. This is the deciding moment. This is what authoritarianism looks like right now in this country. It’s happening.” 
Oh my God, you can hear the jackboots at the door. 
David Letterman <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/david-letterman-laces-into-trump-white-house-over-to-kimmel-suspension-an-authoritarian-criminal-administration/">emerged</a> from his house in the woods — where I assume he&#8217;s writing Unabomber journals — to go to the vaunted Atlantic Festival to talk about how this is a criminal and authoritarian administration. 
Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, who for some weird reason believes that he is going to run for president, said <a href="https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1969024042926547421">Kimmel’s suspension</a> was about Trump silencing his political opponents. He actually said the people should take to the streets, that there should basically be giant protests in favor of Jimmy Kimmel. 
After spending 60 years using the FCC to crack down on its own political opposition, it is hilarious to see the Left protesting about Kimmel’s suspension. 
For a solid couple of decades, Democrats were quite authoritarian in their approach to free speech. We all remember the Woke revolutions, where if you didn&#8217;t post a black square, you were in danger of losing your job. We all remember Barack Obama using the law to spy on James Rosen, the Associated Press journalist. We remember Joe Biden using the power of the government to crack down on major social media companies in order to get them to mirror his political priorities. We all remember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling for more censorship. 
The Left is crying about Kimmel and free speech. 
It’s been hardly more than a week since America lost Charlie.

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel From Late Show After Comments About Charlie Kirk Shooting

Kimmel Suspended, Democrats Livid 

Ben Shapiro

Charlie Kirk

Democrats

Jimmy Kimmel

Jon Stewart

Legacy Media

Opinion

Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel cleared a very low bar when it came to their comments on the murder of conservative superstar Charlie Kirk.
They said all the right things about the assassination. It was the least they could have done.
Kimmel touched on “gun violence,” but kept the messaging to a minimum via his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DOb8B9xjgZJ/">Instagram feed</a>.
<blockquote>Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human? On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.</blockquote>
Colbert <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2025/09/11/charlie-kirk-death-stephen-colbert-jimmy-kimmel/86089661007/">addressed</a> the assassination on-air:
<blockquote>Our condolences go out to his family and all of his loved ones … I&#8217;m old enough to personally remember the political violence of the 1960s, and I hope it is obvious to everyone in America that political violence does not solve any of our political differences. Political violence only leads to more political violence.</blockquote>
Good. And better than <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/if-hes-not-fired-this-doesnt-matter-msnbc-trashed-over-charlie-kirk-coverage-lame-apology?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=13&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=MSNBC+Trashed+Over+Lame+Apology+After+Commentator+Suggests+Charlie+Kirk+Assassination+Was+Justified">some MSNBC pundits</a> or Democrats who quickly used Kirk’s passing as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jb-pritzker-condemns-political-violence-after-charlie-kirks-death-says-trumps-rhetoric-often-foments-it">another cudgel</a> against President Donald Trump.
But wait.
It’s not an accident that the shooter reportedly carved hard-left, anti-fascist, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/details-revealed-about-suspected-charlie-kirk-assassins-leftist-ideology">messages</a> on his bullet casings. More importantly, why would anyone want to kill a God-fearing conservative who specialized in having cordial debates with those who don’t agree with his worldview?
Kirk stared down unhinged college students, calmly letting them speak before deftly deconstructing their arguments. He didn’t shout or belittle them. He wanted to make a connection, to share why he feels the way he feels.
Is that the MAGA image Colbert and Kimmel invoke from their bully pulpits? Hardly. And while you’re at it, what about Seth Meyers or John Oliver? These hard-Left comedians don’t simply traffic in political satire. They use their platforms to savage all things conservative.
<div id="attachment_468177" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-468177" class="size-large wp-image-468177" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-866x576.jpg" alt="" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/11/GettyImages-1242055992-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images</div>
They manipulate facts and feast on hoaxes — Russian collusion, anyone? They pounce on news stories that quickly prove to be incorrect: The strike on <a href="https://www.tvinsider.com/1199026/stephen-colbert-trump-f-bomb-rant-monologue-video/">Iran’s nuclear weapons</a> program did zero damage, right?
While Bill Maher offers left-leaning monologues with balance and bite, Colbert and co. go scorched earth. Nightly. Their comedy routines paint President Trump and anyone on his MAGA train in the most unflattering terms possible.
“[If You] ‘have to tell people I’m not Hitler, something is wrong,” Kimmel once said in a typical attack.
Colbert routinely plays a similar card, <a href="https://www.aol.com/stephen-colbert-says-kelly-hitler-142733106.html">feasting on wobbly news articles</a> to buttress his points.
Hilarious.
Kimmel infamously cried, on air, the night after President Trump won re-election late last year. Between sobs, he described a frightening scenario under Trump 2.0.
<blockquote>It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for health care, for our climate, for science, for journalism, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on Social Security, for our allies in Ukraine, for NATO and democracy and decency.</blockquote>
<a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/jimmy-kimmel-monologue-trump-win-tears-1236203362/">It wasn’t comedy</a>. It was pure fear-mongering.
<div id="attachment_933335" style="width: 903px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-933335" class="size-large wp-image-933335" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Jimmy-Kimmel-893x576.jpg" alt="Jimmy Kimmel" width="893" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Jimmy-Kimmel-893x576.jpg 893w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Jimmy-Kimmel-300x194.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Jimmy-Kimmel-768x495.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Jimmy-Kimmel.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 893px) 100vw, 893px" />Easterseals/Getty Images for Easterseals</div>
What does this have to do with Kirk? Well, everything. Late-night liberals paint Trump and his MAGA faithful with a very broad brush, and they have for some time.
Remember how the far-Left “Saturday Night Live” created a faux Trump campaign ad all the way back in 2016 that depicted his voters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg0pO9VG1J8">as KKK members and Nazis</a>?
It hasn’t gotten better since then.
Plus, Kirk had plenty to do with the president’s re-election. His bond with young voters was legendary. He worked in tandem with Trump’s messaging to get him back in the White House, powered partly by youthful voters who saw more than a few of Kirk’s legendary debate smackdowns.
Every article about his murder tied Kirk to Trump.
Blaming extreme rhetoric for real-world violence shouldn’t be done lightly, and it’s always more complicated than it sounds. This isn’t a new political tactic. President Bill Clinton proved that maxim when he immediately called out right-wing talk radio <a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/flashback-how-clinton-exploited-oklahoma-city-for-political-gain/article_4a5b06ba-cea5-539a-8eed-ea3bd45d3d67.html">following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing</a>.
That was politically expedient and foolhardy. Compared to modern political rhetoric, talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh was a veritable pussycat. Plus, whatever sway right-wing radio had at the time was minuscule compared to the bigger media picture today.
Would-be assassins can now feast on extreme Fake News from CNN, MSNBC or other dishonest outlets. Or, they can listen to a month’s worth of late-night monologues. The foul messaging hits us from all sides in 2025. It’s the new abnormal.
Free speech still matters, of course. We shouldn’t silence a late-night host for resorting to extreme talking points, Fake News and hate. That’s a slippery slope and legitimately scary.
They still should take a long, hard look in the mirror to grasp what they’re injecting into the body politic. Will Kirk’s shocking murder make that happen?
If past is prologue, absolutely not. The assassination attempt against Trump last year proves it.
Ironically, Kirk cheered on “South Park” when the venerable series took direct aim at him last month. The series showed Cartman becoming a “master debater” via the “Got a Nut?” episode, his hairstyle directly copying Kirk’s signature ‘do.
It wasn’t an accident. And Kirk greeted the satirical takedown with a smile.
Why? It wasn’t cruel or meant to injure. It was political comedy, and he recognized it as such.
<blockquote>There’s going to be a lot said about this, but we need to have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a success, this is all a win. We as conservatives, we have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us, and it doesn’t matter.</blockquote>
He got the joke. Sometimes, there’s nothing funny about what comics like Kimmel and Colbert add to the conversation.
* * *
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.

MixCollage-13-Sep-2025-06-37-PM-4553

Colbert And Kimmel Clear A Low Bar With Late-Night Condolences

assassination

Comedy

Leftists

Russia Collusion Hoax

Former late night host Conan O’Brien weighed in with his thoughts about “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert being canceled, saying he believes the future of this genre is doomed.
“I’ve dabbled in other things, but that’s where I’ve lived,” the former host of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien,” and “Conan” <a href="https://www.tvinsider.com/1209424/conan-obrien-predicts-late-night-tv-disappear-amid-stephen-colbert-cancellation/">said</a>, per TV Insider. “And for those of you under 40, late-night television was a service designed to distract college students until science would perfect the internet and online pornography. And boy, did they get that right.”
O’Brien made his remarks as part of a speech he gave while being inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
“It’s all electrifying a new generation of viewers,” the longtime host continued. “Yes, late-night television, as we have known it since around 1950, is going to disappear. But those voices are not going anywhere. People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away.”
He also commented on Colbert’s situation specifically, saying, “Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely.”
“So, technology can do whatever they want,” O’Brien added. “It can make television a pill. It can make television shows a high-protein, chewable, vanilla-flavored capsule with added fiber. It still won’t matter, if the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspired, if the people making it are brave and of goodwill.”
Commenters on X disagreed, saying that format of programming wasn&#8217;t going away, but that insufferable hosts like Colbert would become a thing of the past.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
&#8220;Late night TV won&#8217;t disappear as Greg Gutfeld&#8217;s late night talk show is thriving,&#8221; one person on X <a href="https://x.com/GoForDawn/status/1957394601133674589">commented</a>. &#8220;Perhaps late night talk shows will simply revert back to the comedy &amp; entertainment from which they were originally created and not the psycho political propaganda and nanny scolding too many became.&#8221;
Another person chimed in, <a href="https://x.com/tibblion2/status/1957414382914175404">writing</a>, &#8220;Because they overinflated the budgets and alienated half the audience; all other options became available through streaming and online services.&#8221;
CBS announced last month 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 expletive-laced tirade during his first monologue following the announcement, 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.
Other late night mainstays such as Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon have come to Colbert’s defense, saying the reports claiming that “The Late Show” was losing tens of millions were “<a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/awards/jimmy-kimmel-defends-colbert-late-night-tv-not-dying-1236479160/">nonsensical</a>.”

Conan O’Brien

Conan O’Brien Predicts Late Night Shows Will ‘Disappear’ Following Colbert Cancellation

Conan O'Brien Predicts Late Night Shows Will 'Disappear' Following Colbert Cancellation

Celebrities

Conan O'Brien

U.S.

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.

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

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

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

Woke Culture

CBS late night host Stephen Colbert jabbed at former Vice President Kamala Harris when she refused to say who she believed was leading the Democratic Party going into the 2026 midterm elections.
Harris joined Colbert on Thursday to promote her new campaign memoir — titled &#8220;107 Days&#8221; — and after pointing out the fact that both Harris and former President Joe Biden were removed from the campaign scene, Colbert asked who would step in and lead the Democratic Party in the immediate future.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kamala Harris was asked by canceled Late Show host Stephen Colbert who the leader of the Democrat Party is…
She couldn’t name a single person.
Even she couldn’t pretend someone was in charge.
The Democrat Party is a ship with no captain, no compass, and no clue. <a href="https://t.co/Vt3csPOstq">pic.twitter.com/Vt3csPOstq</a>
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesleyHuntTX/status/1951285199578308914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;You&#8217;re no longer – you&#8217;re not running for office right now, you&#8217;re stepping away from that life right now,&#8221; Colbert began. &#8220;Um — who&#8217;s leading the Democratic Party? I&#8217;m just curious.&#8221;
&#8220;There are lots of leaders, and — and — and —&#8221;Harris began, but Colbert stopped her.
&#8220;There&#8217;s generally a leader of the Democratic Party,&#8221; Colbert challenged, prompting laughs from the audience. &#8220;You know, like, &#8216;Oh, that&#8217;s the leader of the Democratic Party.&#8217; Who comes to mind?&#8221;
&#8220;I think there are a lot —&#8221; Harris said again, and then corrected herself before Colbert could interrupt again. &#8220;I&#8217;m not gonna go through names, &#8217;cause then I&#8217;m gonna leave somebody out and then I&#8217;m gonna hear about it.&#8221;
&#8220;But let me just — let me say this,&#8221; Harris continued. &#8220;I think it is a mistake for us who want to figure out how to get out and through this, and get out of it, to put it on the shoulders of any one person, it&#8217;s really on all of our shoulders.&#8221;
Harris announced earlier in the week that, after giving it a lot of thought, she had decided <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamala-will-not-run-for-governor-in-california">not to run</a> for governor in her home state of California. Speculation continues to swirl that she may run for the presidency again in 2028.

‘There’s Generally A Leader’: Colbert Presses Kamala To Name Dem Top Dog

'There's Generally *A* Leader': Colbert Presses Kamala To Name Dem Top Dog

Kamala Harris

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'

A protest aimed at defending comedian Stephen Colbert — who is set to lose his gig hosting &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; on CBS in May of 2026 — drew a crowd of tens on Sunday afternoon.
According to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/27/us-news/nycs-were-with-colbert-rally-for-late-night-host-is-bust/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_medium=social">report</a> published by The New York Post, just about 20 people showed up to voice their support for the soon-to-be ousted host — and even those who did show up didn&#8217;t stay long. The New York City cops — who were on the scene just in case the protest got out of hand — took off as well when it became apparent that nothing was happening.
The event organizer told The New York Post that his name was Matt and his nickname was &#8220;Slim&#8221; (but he would not give the outlet any other identification). He explained that he&#8217;d attempted to bring a group together outside the CBS Broadcast Center — on the West Side of Manhattan — to say &#8220;We&#8217;re with Colbert.&#8221;
&#8220;Our country is not perfect, never has been,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we’ve always had the First Amendment, and now Mango Mussolini is trying to take that from us.&#8221;
Another protester, who refused to give her name, told the outlet, &#8220;This is a First Amendment attack. We can’t stand for that.&#8221;
CBS has stated the Colbert&#8217;s exit — in May of 2026 — was &#8220;purely a financial decision&#8221; and recent reports have indicated that Colbert&#8217;s show may have taken a loss of $40 million in the last year.
Others have suggested that politics — specifically the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-host-breaks-ranks-offers-surprisingly-sane-reason-for-colberts-ouster">one-sided tone</a> of Colbert&#8217;s show — had caused him to lose popularity.
Longtime &#8220;Tonight Show&#8221; host Jay Leno addressed the changing tone in late night comedy during a recent <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/27/media/jay-leno-slams-late-night-hosts-for-alienating-half-audience-with-partisan-politics-against-trump/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_medium=social">interview</a> with Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation CEO David Trulio.
WATCH:
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Late-night TV used to be about laughs — not lectures.<a href="https://twitter.com/jayleno?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jayleno</a> tells us why he never shared his political opinions on The Tonight Show, and why he thinks today’s hosts are losing half of America by doing so. <a href="https://t.co/dEvhjICdyC">pic.twitter.com/dEvhjICdyC</a>
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation &amp; Institute (@RonaldReagan) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonaldReagan/status/1947778371997602166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I don’t understand why you would alienate one particular group, you know, or just don’t do it at all. I’m not saying you have to throw your support or whatever, but just do what’s funny,&#8221; Leno said, later adding, &#8220;It was fun to me when I got hate letters, ‘Dear Mr. Leno, you and your Republican friends’ and​, ‘Well, Mr. Leno, I hope you and your Democratic buddies are happy’ — over the same joke.&#8221;

NYC ‘We’re With Colbert’ Rally Draws Tens Of People, Even Cops Go Home

NYC 'We're With Colbert' Rally Draws Tens Of People

CBS News

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=" (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=" (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=" (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

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:
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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

&#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; host Tony Dokoupil offered a different take than most of his colleagues — and even some at other legacy media networks — when he conceded on Tuesday that the decision to oust Stephen Colbert and cancel &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; might have been about politics, but not in the way they all thought.
Amid a virtual firestorm of complaints that Colbert&#8217;s cancellation was political — specifically, he&#8217;d been too <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-view-melts-down-over-colbert-king-trump-is-coming-for-the-court-jesters">vocally opposed to President Donald Trump</a> on a network that was staring down the barrel of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/big-and-important-win-trump-crows-over-settlement-in-cbs-paramount-lawsuit">multi-million dollar lawsuit</a> — Dokoupil argued that the &#8220;one-sided&#8221; nature of Colbert&#8217;s commentary may have put off more people than just Trump.
WATCH:
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WATCH: ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Tony Dokoupil brings a much-needed reality check to the table of liberal journalists fawning over ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’. His co-hosts dismissed all this, proving his point:
“I don’t have an MBA, but I don’t — [Jon Stewart] is not… <a href="https://t.co/qR5R74g2vY">pic.twitter.com/qR5R74g2vY</a>
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1947754373833977899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Co-host Vladimir Duthiers complained that, regardless of the expense to produce shows like Colbert&#8217;s, they were &#8220;part of the cultural zeitgeist and they have been part of television since the beginning of television. So that’s why people are reacting the way that they are.&#8221;
Over several objections from his co-hosts, Dokoupil laid out his point — and also argued that comedian Jon Stewart was wrong when he suggested that Paramount had felt threatened by Colbert&#8217;s show as the merger progressed: &#8220;No, I understand the emotional views. I don’t have an MBA, but [Stewart is] not right that the merger, the $8 billion, is based on reruns of a comedy show, no. People are buying the movies and the sitcoms, and the sports. They’re not based on reruns of us either, so I think it’s wrong.”
&#8220;And what no one seems to acknowledge is that the politics also changed,&#8221; Dokoupil continued. &#8220;The business changed, and so did the politics. And it got way more one-sided than anything Johnny Carson was ever doing. I think we should reflect on those changes as well. It’s been a big shift culturally in that regard, also for sure.&#8221;
&#8220;People will miss those shows when they&#8217;re gone, that&#8217;s the bottom line,&#8221; Duthiers insisted.

CBS Host Breaks Ranks, Offers Surprisingly Sane Reason For Colbert’s Ouster

CBS Host Breaks Ranks, Offers Surprisingly Sane Reason For Colbert's Ouster

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