There’s a new documentary about Jussie Smollett on Netflix, and as expected, the disgraced actor is still trying to claim his innocence.
“The Truth About Jussie Smollett??” has two question marks in its title on purpose, and the director says the aim of the project is to cast doubt and let viewers form their own conclusions.
“You can tilt it one way [and] it will look like one thing,” documentary filmmaker Gagan Rehill <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/jussie-smollett-truth-in-new-netflix-documentary-1236348143/">told</a> The Hollywood Reporter of the project. “You can tilt it another and there’s another story behind it.”
“I want … viewers to have a conversation, a debate about that themselves,” he added. “That’s part of the documentary for me — the after conversation, the aftermath of watching it. For that reason, I’m sort of taking myself out of the equation in terms of where I land.”
Smollett told police on January 29, 2019, that he was attacked by two men in Chicago at 2 a.m., who he claimed made racist and homophobic slurs, wrapped a rope around his neck, poured an “unknown substance” on him, and yelled that this is “MAGA country.” It was later found that Smollett had hired two Nigerian brothers to help him stage the attack.
The “Empire” star was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 and spent just six days in jail after appealing his 150-day sentence. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of lying to police, but those charges were dropped.
In November 2024, Smollett’s conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court, which also deemed he could not be retried.
Smollett has insisted upon his innocence all along.
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“As an entertainer, as a businessman, I probably should [stop fighting the charges],” Smollett told Entertainment Tonight during a 2024 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jussie-smollett-says-he-spent-3m-appealing-hoax-case-maintains-his-original-story?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Jussie+Smollett+Says+He+Spent+%243M+Appealing+Hoax+Case%2C+Maintains+His+Original+Story">interview</a>.
“But as a human being and as a man, as a black man and as an openly gay black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” the actor continued. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.”
Rehill also claimed that the truth is “up to interpretation” and may depend on which news channel you tune into.
“This film is about whether you believe Jussie or not, but it’s also about a reaction to [the news coverage of his case] as well,” Rehill told THR. “It’s just very interesting that people’s trust in mainstream media and in the police has been eroded so much that they have to open the door to alternate truths, or alternate results or verdicts.”
&#8220;Every single other person’s story has changed multiple times. Mine has never,&#8221; Smollett told Variety in a new interview. &#8220;I saw firsthand how narratives are built. I saw firsthand the way that someone can take the exact opposite of who you are and literally sell it.&#8221;
“The Truth About Jussie Smollett??” is currently streaming on Netflix.

Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett Is Still Whining That He’s Innocent In New Netflix Documentary

Documentaries

Entertainment

Netflix

U.S.

President Donald Trump said Friday that MSNBC is changing its name because they are &#8220;ashamed&#8221; of how bad the channel has become.
Trump ripped the left-leaning channel, which has attacked him relentlessly for years, during an impromptu tour of The People&#8217;s House, a newer museum and gift shop across the street from the White House.
&#8220;Then you turn to CNN, which is fake news, and nobody watches it, or MSDNC, MSNBC, they changed their name now because they were so bad,&#8221; Trump told reporters. &#8220;They&#8217;re the worst, owned by Comcast, run by a guy named Brian Roberts who doesn&#8217;t have a clue. He&#8217;s terrible, terrible manager.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> roasts MSDNC: &#8220;They&#8217;re changing them name because they&#8217;re ashamed of it.&#8221; 🤣 <a href="https://t.co/8VfnXbFTmp">pic.twitter.com/8VfnXbFTmp</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1958903376722194928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;But they&#8217;re not, I don&#8217;t think, selling it,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;They&#8217;re changing the name because they&#8217;re ashamed of it, and they&#8217;re disassociating it from NBC, which is also fake news, you know. They should be ashamed of that too &#8230; NBC is run terribly by Con-cast. I call it Con-cast cause it&#8217;s whole con,&#8221; the president said.
MSNBC is being forced to undergo a rebrand stripping the cable channel of its name and changing it to MS NOW, short for My Source News Opinion World. The channel will also lose NBC&#8217;s iconic peacock symbol.
Over the last decade, MSNBC has become known for histrionics over Trump from its leftist hosts and guests. Talking heads regularly compare Trump to Hitler.
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&#8220;There is no difference from what Donald Trump is preaching, from what Adolf Hitler preached in the early &#8217;30s. Let&#8217;s just say it once and for all,&#8221; Donny Deutsch <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/09/23/msnbcs_donny_deutsch_what_is_the_difference_between_trump_and_hitler_im_not_saying_theres_a_holocaust.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said</a> in 2020.
Last year, a Democratic strategist went on MSNBC and <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/msnbc-guest-says-america-created-nazi-germany-trashes-racist-sexist-pope-francis-and-authoritarian-weasel-trump-in-wild-interview/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">called</a> Trump &#8220;exactly like Mussolini, exactly like Hitler,&#8221; and a &#8220;fascist, authoritarian weasel.&#8221;
Earlier this week, Trump also slammed MSNBC on Truth Social, writing in all caps that the channel is &#8220;doing so poorly in the ratings that they are looking to change their name in order to get away from the stench of their fake news product.&#8221;
Trump said Comcast&#8217;s &#8220;weak and ineffective&#8221; and &#8220;dopey&#8221; owner is &#8220;hopelessly and aimlessly flailing in the wind in an attempt to disassociate itself from the garbage that they created!&#8221;
&#8220;SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115064840755804065">wrote</a>. &#8220;MSNBC IS A FAILURE BY ANY NAME!!!&#8221;
In his comments Friday, Trump also referenced the $8 billion merger of CBS&#8217; parent company Paramount with Skydance Media, run by David Ellison, who Trump called &#8220;a great person that I know very well.&#8221;
&#8220;A great man, actually, just bought CBS, and I think he&#8217;s going to do the right thing with it,&#8221; Trump said.
Trump recently won a $16 million settlement in his lawsuit claiming CBS deceptively edited its &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; interview with Kamala Harris to make her look better.
The president offered a rare bit of optimism for the changing media landscape.
&#8220;But a lot of fake news. I think the news is getting better. They&#8217;re learning that they have no credibility,&#8221; Trump said.

Donald Trump Addresses Annual Israeli American Council Summit In Washington

Trump Says MSNBC Changed Name Because It’s ‘Ashamed’

Trump Says MSNBC Changed Name Because It's 'Ashamed'

Donald Trump

Media

MSNBC

Politics

When Warrior Chief Kaʻiana discovers he&#8217;s been manipulated into massacring the peaceful villagers of the island of O’ahu, Apple TV+&#8217;s &#8220;Chief of War&#8221; reveals a disturbing truth about power that transcends any single culture or era. This historical drama, starring Jason Momoa, follows the former Kauaʻi chief who made his home on Maui in self-exile, disgusted by the violent nature of Kauai’s King Kahekili. When Kahekili draws him back under false pretenses — claiming the young king of O&#8217;ahu poses a threat to Maui — Kaʻiana reluctantly participates in what becomes a massacre that turns out to be a peaceful farming community whose king honored the same peaceful ideals Kaʻiana himself embodied.
Set against the backdrop of increasing British arrivals and the looming unification of Hawaiʻi under Kamehameha I, the series examines the collision between noble intentions and brutal realities. Kamehameha&#8217;s unification campaign involved systematic warfare across the island chain, employing both traditional Hawaiian tactics and newly acquired Western firearms — a cruel irony that mirrors the show&#8217;s central themes of violence in pursuit of ostensibly noble goals. This historical trajectory proves grimly prophetic: the unified Kingdom of Hawaiʻi eventually fell to American and European colonization in 1893, became a U.S. territory in 1898, and was subsequently admitted as a U.S. state in 1959 — exactly as the native Hawaiians had feared when they first witnessed increasing numbers of white men discovering their islands.
&#8220;Chief of War&#8221; weaves together several powerful themes: preserving the cultural identity of native Hawaiian people, examining the practical ideals of unification alongside the horrific violence that ensued in this pursuit, and exploring the moral complexities of leadership during times of both internal warfare and external threats from forces seeking to subjugate the kingdom. These themes resonate well with contemporary American political discourse, where we continually hear from the progressive left that America is fundamentally a nation of occupiers and usurpers — a country built on the backs of those it has enslaved and subjugated, requiring comprehensive amends for historical injustices against enslaved blacks, native Americans, and islanders now under its rule. This narrative has shaped everything from reparations debates to land acknowledgments, creating a political narrative that often reduces complex historical realities to simple victim-oppressor dynamics.
<div id="attachment_964015" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-964015" class="size-large wp-image-964015" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225039360-864x576.jpg" alt="KAPOLEI, HAWAII - JULY 18: Jason Momoa attends the world premiere of the Apple TV+ drama series &quot;Chief of War&quot; at Ko Olina Beach Park on July 18, 2025 in Kapolei, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225039360-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225039360-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225039360-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2225039360.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />KAPOLEI, HAWAII &#8211; JULY 18: Jason Momoa attends the world premiere of the Apple TV+ drama series &#8220;Chief of War&#8221; at Ko Olina Beach Park on July 18, 2025 in Kapolei, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)</div>
While America should fully acknowledge its horrific past of enslavement, betrayals, and subjection of indigenous peoples, these actions represent examples of the universal human condition rather than uniquely European evil. In &#8220;Chief of War,&#8221; we witness the violent, power-hungry Kahekili betraying his own nephew, manipulating him as an instrument of war against the peaceful people of O&#8217;ahu. This demonstrates that even without the threat of European colonization, the capacity for both evil and good exists within all cultures and peoples. The primary difference lies in scale — violence, war, and betrayal among a small group of islands operates by the same moral principles as similar actions across an entire continent.
This pattern of moral complexity extends particularly to American slavery. Few Americans are aware that without direct African involvement, there would have been no trans-Atlantic slave trade. Professor and historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. notes in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/opinion/23gates.html">New York Times opinion</a> article that colonial conquests of Africa&#8217;s interior didn&#8217;t occur until the late 1800s. For centuries prior, European explorers remained close to coastal forts, depending entirely on Africans to sell those they had enslaved to European traders who would transport these slaves to the New World — accounting for 90% of the slave trade. Gates poses the salient question we should all consider: why do Americans place blame solely at the feet of Europeans when their success was entirely dependent on the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa?
Similarly, we should also examine the argument that pre-Columbian America was entirely populated by peaceful natives prior to European colonization. Historical evidence reveals this narrative is incomplete. While European arrival undeniably brought devastating new diseases, conflicts over land, and systematic violence as settlers expanded into the continent&#8217;s interior, warfare and conflict among tribes existed long before this period. Archaeological evidence confirms ongoing competition for resources and territorial disputes among various Native American tribes.
This analysis doesn&#8217;t suggest that Europeans were justified in their atrocities against other people groups. America&#8217;s history is written in blood, and there can be no denial of the utter brutality involved in its making. However, judging historical figures by contemporary moral standards is highly problematic. All humans are creatures of their time, and many of us descend from those who formed America, for good or ill. Thus, no one in the present day can reasonably (or should) claim how they would have responded to any given circumstance in the distant past.
We must recognize there is only one race — the human race — and only one condition — the human condition. &#8220;Chief of War&#8221; reminds us that moral complexity, the capacity for both violence and nobility, isn&#8217;t unique to any particular people — it is the universal burden and potential of being human. &#8220;Chief of War&#8221; ultimately challenges viewers to abandon the comfortable simplicity of America’s increasing echo chambers of tribal thought by embracing the difficult work of understanding humanity&#8217;s capacity for both cruelty and compassion across all cultures and eras.
* * *
Walter Myers III is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

MixCollage-22-Aug-2025-09-06-AM-328

‘Chief Of War’ Challenges The Myth Of ‘Peaceful Natives’ Before Colonization

'Chief Of War' Challenges The Myth Of 'Peaceful Natives' Before Colonization

Apple

Hawaii

Hollywood

indigenous

Jason Momoa

Native Americans

A pair of contestants on Israel’s version of the competition dance show “Dancing With the Stars” (&#8220;Rokdim Im Kokhavim&#8221;) is going viral for their Melania and Donald Trump-themed dance routine.
Fans were delighted by internet personality Taylor Malkov and professional dancer Haim Pershtein’s star spangled performance last week, which opened with &#8220;The Star Spangled Banner&#8221; followed by the Trump favorite “Y.M.C.A.” by Village People.
A video clip of the pair dancing has 2.3 million views on X and is quickly racking up views across social media platforms.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Israel’s “Dance With the Stars” Pair Dressed as Trump &amp; Melania Absolutely Kills Their Performance " width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TfNyJky6EUc?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>
“It&#8217;s astonishing what six months of sane, strong leadership can do in America. This was unimaginable last year. The Golden Era indeed,” one of the top comments <a href="https://x.com/AmericanWolf24/status/1954715239431491679">says</a>.
“We’re definitely heading in the right direction,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/AmericanWolf24/status/1954715239431491679">agreed</a>.
“This is a good vibe, America is once again gaining respect around the world,” echoed a third.
“Oh my… the heads of the Democrat communist party are going to explode over this one. Congratulations Israel! Job well done,” <a href="https://x.com/emss1922/status/1954723491103584540">said</a> another.
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A YouTube commenter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfNyJky6EUc">wrote</a>, “Whether you love or hate Trump, you must admit this was a brilliant idea. It was funny, original, and so well-done that you couldn&#8217;t tell who was the non-professional dancer. It put a smile on my face.”
President Trump is widely considered the most supportive American president Israel has ever known thanks to him moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights, and brokering the historic Abraham Accords, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thank-you-mr-president-israel-posts-huge-signs-of-gratitude-to-trump">reported</a>. 
One week before the election last November, a poll found that 66% of Israelis supported Trump while just 17% of them were hoping Kamala Harris won.
Months before the election, Trump also spoke about the October 7 massacre, saying, “Weak leadership in the United States allowed this to happen, and it should never have happened.”
“Never again,” Trump promised at the time.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-INAUGURATION

Trump-Inspired Routine On Israeli ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Goes Viral

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World

Comedy Central had planned for South Park to take a hiatus this week, long before the animated show’s 27th season premiered. Which means viewers will have to wait another week to see how creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone choose to lampoon the Trump administration next.
South Park parodied Trump last month in its season 27 premiere, prompting many viewers to note that the show — which has poked fun at both Democrats and Republicans — never mocked President Joe Biden while he was in office, despite having plenty of opportunities to do so.
“The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end – for years they have come after ‘South Park’ for what they labeled as ‘offense’ content, but suddenly they are praising the show,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. “This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.”
Unfortunately for the South Park team, the rest of the Trump administration seems to be getting a kick out of the parodies.
The show’s latest episode, “Got a Nut,” includes a parody of Trump and JD Vance. The millennial vice president was thrilled,
“Well, I’ve finally made it,” Vance said in response to one of the clips being posted to X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Well, I’ve finally made it <a href="https://t.co/Mu7VrSVTSb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://t.co/Mu7VrSVTSb</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/1953415006319431700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized the episode for focusing on mocking her appearance.
“It never ends, but it’s so lazy to constantly make fun of women for how they look,” she told Glenn Beck on his podcast the day after the episode aired. “It’s always the liberals and the extremists who do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t, they just pick something petty like that.”
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But Noem and her team also embraced the parody. The day before the episode aired, Homeland Security used the show to advertise its ICE recruitment currently underway.
“We want to thank ‘South Park’ for drawing attention to ICE law enforcement recruitment,” the agency said in a statement.” We are calling on patriotic Americans to help us remove murderers, gang members, pedophiles, and other violent criminals from our country.”
Later on, Noem tweeted out a screenshot of her South Park “appearance,” along with a link to the ICE recruitment website.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/SoBO0HH9Yc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://t.co/SoBO0HH9Yc</a> <a href="https://t.co/o8eY1V1ggp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/o8eY1V1ggp</a>
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/1953901524087669126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
Perhaps disappointed in Noem’s response, earlier this week South Park shared an unaired scene from its latest episode, which portrayed Noem shooting up a pet store.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Didn’t see this on TV?
Here’s the Paramount+ version of the end credits scene. <a href="https://t.co/QAvMgQfU9t" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/QAvMgQfU9t</a>
— South Park (@SouthPark) <a href="https://twitter.com/SouthPark/status/1955000014893355389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
The same episode depicted the character Eric Cartman impersonating Turning Point USA co-founder and CEO Charlie Kirk at a campus event. Cartman takes questions from the crowd as they discuss abortion.
“What makes you think you have the right to say what I do with my body?” a woman asks.
“Let me ask you something. If a pregnant woman is killed and the baby dies too, why is the killer charged with a double homicide?” Cartman replies.
“Well, but because people have different beliefs,” the woman responds.
“It’s not about belief. It’s about truth,” Cartman says. “Science confirms life begins at conception.”
Kirk <a href="https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1953290604365885923" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared the clip</a> on X and wrote, “Not bad, Cartman,” alongside crying laughing emojis. The TPUSA founder also changed his X profile picture to a screenshot of his South Park caricature.
The episode features school counselor Mr. Mackey being fired from his job and deciding to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After being hired by ICE immediately, Mackey watches a recruitment video where Noem shoots dogs, which is a reference to her once discussing killing an “untrainable” family pet.
Mackey later gets invited to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump offers to make him the “new face of Homeland Security.” Trump then brings Mackey into his bedroom and introduces him to Satan, who is reading a book in bed. Vance is also present and depicted as Trump’s short-statured servant.
The Season 27 premiere, “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” also depicted the president having a romantic relationship with Satan.

South Park

The Newest Republican Status Symbol? Being Parodied On South Park.

Charlie Kirk

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Kristi Noem

A lot of folks have tried to figure out exactly why the Donald Trump phenomenon happened.
Donald Trump has been the most transformative political figure of the 21st century. Without a doubt, it was going to be Barack Obama. And then Trump came in and completely remade American politics in global geopolitics.
But what led to the Trump phenomenon in the first place? There have been a lot of attempts to philosophize about Trump. Maybe it was all about economic grievances in the Midwest? Maybe it was all about offshoring? Maybe it was all about tariffs or about immigration?
The reality is the biggest thing that drove Donald Trump to victory in 2016 and again in 2024 is the fact that the Left went culturally insane.
The backlash against the Left has been less about tax rates than about a generalized feeling that the Left was trying to dissolve the culture of the United States on traditional, basic issues such as “men are not women.” Or “There is such a thing as America, and America is good.” Or, “Christianity ought to be held with a high level of esteem.”
These are certain things Americans took for granted. Things like church, apple pie, baseball, the flag, all the stuff people used to think was corny.
And then the Left decided, they weren’t just corny, they were bad.
But it turns out most Americans don&#8217;t think like that.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2253-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=3&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Why do I bring this up? Because you&#8217;re seeing all of this crystallized in what I would term a culture division between the Sydney Sweeney Americans and the Cynthia Erivo Americans.
Cynthia Erivo, whom I’ve praised before, is a terrific actress from Great Britain, a great singer, and unbelievably talented. But Cynthia Erivo has also become emblematic of a leftist social value belief system.
This became a hot issue online over the course of the last 48 hours, because she was the star of a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Jesus Christ Superstar, as a musical, is quite respectful to Christian traditions. It is not meant to make fun of Christian traditions.
But at the Hollywood Bowl, they decided they were going to cast Cynthia Erivo as Jesus Christ.
There are a few problems with this: Cynthia Erivo is a woman; Jesus Christ was a man. Cynthia Erivo is black; Jesus Christ was a Middle-Eastern Jew. Cynthia Erivo describes herself as queer and bisexual. Jesus Christ was not, to say the least, any of that.
So they took all the things that Jesus Christ was not, and morphed them into what the Left wishes Jesus Christ were. The whole goal of this production at the Hollywood Bowl was to be completely subversive of Christianity, and to supplant traditional values with the values of the far-Left social sphere.
Theater critic Charles McNulty&#8217;s <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-08-04/jesus-christ-superstar-review-hollywood-bowl-cynthia-erivo">gushing review</a> in the L.A. Times stated:
<blockquote>Cynthia Erivo, a noted theatrical divinity, redeemed the title of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend in a magnetic, heaven-sent performance that established God the Savior as a queer Black woman, as many of us suspected might be the case all along. Divine dispensation allowed me to catch the final performance of this revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 breakout musical. I returned from vacation just in time to join the pilgrimaging hordes carting cumbersome picnic baskets and enough wine for a few dozen Sicilian weddings. The vast number of attendees caused bottlenecks at entry points, prompting one wag to crack, “What is this, the Second Coming?</blockquote>
Notice all of the extraordinarily seething comments of hatred for Christianity just in the first two paragraphs. “God the Savior as a queer Black woman, as many of us suspected might be the case all along.” That everyone suspected all along that God the Savior was a “queer black woman.” Erivo is a “theatrical divinity.” It was only “divine dispensation” and the favor of God that caused him to catch this performance of Cynthia Erivo.
“The headliners, Erivo as Jesus and Adam Lambert as Judas, certainly have sizable fan bases,” he continued. “But so too does the subject of this Greatest Story Ever Told, a messiah whose following has few equals in the history of the world. Suffice it to say, it was a supercharged evening, comparable more to a rock concert than one of the Bowl’s forays into the musical theater past.”
He goes on to talk about Cynthia Erivo and the magic of a queer black woman playing Jesus and Adam Lambert, who is openly gay, playing Judas, adding, “Phillipa Soo’s Mary Magdalene brought a probing, tentative and profound intimacy in her adoration of Erivo’s Jesus. In her exquisite rendition of ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him,’ the tenderness between Mary Magdalene and Jesus, at once earthy and ethereal, deepened the expressive range of the love between them.”
The whole idea from the Left is that the entire story of Christianity must be flipped on its head. The imagery that emerges from this performance of JC Superstar is astonishingly hedonistic, truly subversive. That is the entire goal of the enterprise.
I&#8217;m not a Christian, but I have great respect for Christianity. I&#8217;ve encouraged tens of thousands of people to go back to church and many, many people to move back toward their belief system.
Do these performances sound like Jesus and Judas to you, or do they sound like a queer, bisexual black woman and a very, very gay man cosplaying as Jesus and Judas?
The reason that&#8217;s important is because the backlash is one of the things driving America&#8217;s politics right now. The backlash to the left-wing view that everything must be subverted; the church must be subverted; Christianity must be subverted; heterosexuality must be subverted; whiteness must be subverted. All of these things  “must be subverted because they are all emblematic of an evil system of power.”
That is why when Donald Trump said “Make America Great Again,” all he really meant by that was “Stop this stuff. Stop this crap.”
Donald Trump represented a giant, pulsating orange middle finger to all of this nonsense.
On the one side, you have Jesus Christ played by Cynthia Erivo, and on the other side, you have the cultural controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney.
Sydney Sweeney is all-American, and a throwback to every cheesecake star of the 1940s. She&#8217;s the kind of woman who was painted on the front of World War II bombers, and so she looks like a pinup girl from 1944. She grew up in rural areas like Spokane, Washington, and her values reflect that. When she moved to Florida, she registered as a Republican.
There&#8217;s nothing in Hollywood that gets people&#8217;s goat more than being a registered Republican.
But Sydney Sweeney being a Republican shouldn&#8217;t be that big a deal, right? In a country that is at least 50% Republican at this point, why shouldn&#8217;t Sydney Sweeney, who is now a popular actress and advertising icon, be a registered Republican?
When you look at Sydney Sweeney, obviously, she&#8217;s a beautiful woman. But there are lots of beautiful young women in Hollywood. What is it about Sydney Sweeney that drove the Left insane?
Sydney Sweeney is not one of them.
It&#8217;s not just that the Left wishes to uphold the values and rights of the marginalized. They wish to recenter the marginalized and to turn the mainstream, the “normies,” into the marginalized. 
Thus, they must attack anyone who is not one of them.
This is why, for years, every couple of weeks on Twitter, Chris Pratt would randomly trend. That was because Chris Pratt is not of the Left. It doesn&#8217;t mean that he&#8217;s a rabid Right-winger, but because Chris Pratt was not openly saying all of the idiotic nostrums of the Left, from BLM to LGBTQ+-, that made him verboten.
The same thing happened to Sydney Sweeney.
But it&#8217;s now backfiring because Americans have had enough of this crap.
The backlash against Sweeney says that the actual realities of life must be Cynthia Erivo as Jesus Christ and Sydney Sweeney as a Nazi. But the backlash against Sydney Sweeney for being a pretty blonde white girl with blue eyes who can shoot a gun and isn&#8217;t a registered Democrat is the reason that Donald Trump is president.
If that&#8217;s going to be the juxtaposition Democrats and the Left make, they will lose until the end of time.
And they will deserve it.

MixCollage-05-Aug-2025-02-38-PM-7926

Jesus Christ Erivo Vs. MAGA Sweeney

Ben Shapiro

Celebrities

Democrats

Leftists

LGBTQ

musical

Opinion

President Trump

Republicans

Sydney Sweeney

If late night comedy on network television is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/late-night-collapse-colberts-fall-and-the-death-of-balanced-comedy">dying</a>, NBC host and comedian Seth Meyers may have inadvertently revealed one of the reasons for that — and admitted that he has played a part in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-host-breaks-ranks-offers-surprisingly-sane-reason-for-colberts-ouster">bringing that about</a>.
Meyers told host Dax Shepard on his &#8220;Armchair Expert&#8221; podcast that his goal — as the host of &#8220;Late Night with Seth Meyers&#8221; — is to make sure that his show is &#8220;cathartic&#8221; for him while he&#8217;s making it and for the audience as they&#8217;re watching it.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Seth Meyers goes on the Armchair Expert podcast and claims that he views his &#8216;Late Night&#8217; NBC job as wanting &#8220;to make a show that&#8217;s both cathartic to do and cathartic to watch.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/wqHq2AeTYG">pic.twitter.com/wqHq2AeTYG</a>
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexchristy17/status/1950235834671599859?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shepard began by pointing to the obvious left-leaning nature of Meyers&#8217; show, asking whether he felt like people who agreed with him came to watch his show because they found it comforting in a way. What he didn&#8217;t say aloud was that having a show that leaned so far in one particular direction could potentially alienate half of the country.
&#8220;Have you felt over the years that it&#8217;s a bit of a dog whistle for people to come commiserate with you in a way that you&#8217;re like, ‘Ugh,’ I don&#8217;t, let&#8217;s put it this way. I have my own political opinions. I find one of the most boring things in the world is to hear someone else&#8217;s political opinions because there&#8217;s only two, but everyone&#8217;s saying it as if they thought of it themselves and it&#8217;s novel,&#8221; Shepard said. &#8220;No. You just declared you&#8217;re on that side. I get it. So, I would imagine people find you in restaurants and they want to bond over that with you.&#8221;
Meyers agreed, but went on to take the argument a bit further — saying that ultimately it didn&#8217;t matter if he was changing the minds of people who did not agree with him and suggesting that his show might inspire more of the people who do agree with him to get out and vote.
&#8220;Early on, people would say, ‘Do you really think you&#8217;re changing anyone&#8217;s mind?’ And it was ‘no.’  I would like to think that maybe we could, like, if someone&#8217;s like, ‘Should I vote or not?’ You would want to maybe if they watch our show, they think ‘You know what, I am going to get out and cast a ballot,'&#8221; he claimed.
&#8220;Yeah. Yeah. But I think you&#8217;d be hard-pressed to find someone in America that doesn&#8217;t know how they feel about Trump,&#8221; Shepard replied. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s one left.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that for us, we want to make a show that&#8217;s both cathartic to do and cathartic to watch,&#8221; Meyers continued, making it clear that he viewed his show as a place for liberal opinion first and comedy second — if at all.

Late Night with Seth Meyers – Season 11

Seth Meyers Helped Kill Late Night Comedy: Here’s How

Seth Meyers Helped Kill Late Night Comedy: Here's How

Comedy

Seth Meyers

The big controversy of the day surrounds Sydney Sweeney&#8217;s chest.
Sydney Sweeney is an actress who’s done a number of movies lately, but she&#8217;s mostly famous because when she&#8217;s on TV, when she&#8217;s hosting SNL, she shows a lot of cleavage.
She&#8217;s a very attractive woman and did some new <a href="https://x.com/IamSydSweeney/status/1948063444550468039">American Eagle ads</a> that blew up on social media.
One ad shows her buttoning her jeans seductively; she talks about jeans, saying, “My jeans are blue,” while the voice-over says, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
The homonym meant for the audience is that she has great genetic predispositions and characteristics. Another ad shows her closing the hood of a Mustang, then rubbing the backside of her jeans as she walks away.
The real story here is that Sydney Sweeney is doing sexy commercials, which has been a hallmark of advertising going back to the mid-19th century.
This has resulted in people going absolutely insane, totally crazy.
It’s important to note that people who are characterizing American Eagle as some sort of bizarre Right-wing company are missing the boat. American Eagle is not a Right-wing company. American Eagle is a jeans company that follows whatever it thinks are the prevailing trends of the time.
The real question is: What is the zeitgeist here? It is amazing that we are now having a controversy over what would have been, two decades ago, a perfectly normal ad on your television.
I’m old enough to remember when the Right would have objected to such an ad.
There are some of us who are traditionally-minded who still object to the overt sexualization of women in advertising, as well as the sexualization that is being forced on our culture. Some of us are old enough to remember when Paris Hilton was grinding on cars for a Carl&#8217;s Jr. commercial back in 2005, and objecting to that as being too raunchy and problematic.
I don&#8217;t mean problematic in the Left-wing sense; I mean morally problematic to put scantily clad, attractive women in advertising specifically to get people to buy a product.
But the Left has gone completely insane. They&#8217;ve broken down into two categories, both objecting to the ad.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2248-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
The first is the feminist line that these ads were “made for the male gaze.” It&#8217;s all about the “male gaze.”
Can we get over this nonsense, “the male gaze?” Men like to look at pretty women. That is the way of the world. That is the basis of all human reproduction.
That does not mean that men should ogle women. But if we are going to pretend that beauty does not exist and that men don&#8217;t appreciate it, then you are simply ignoring the realities of life.
The second category is those who say there is something peculiarly Nazi about all of this. Washington Post fashion critic Rachel Tashjian and Style Memo newsletter writer Shane O’Neill <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/07/28/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-ad/">discussed</a> the ads.
O’Neill posited:
<blockquote>The most provocative part of the campaign is when she’s talking about offspring and genes. (She says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” and the camera pans to her blue eyes. “My jeans are blue.”) Sweeney also has softer copy in the press release. She says of American Eagle, “They have literally been there with me through every version of myself.”
There’s a message about mutable identity there. And that could be extended into a vision of America as a place where you’re NOT bound by who you are at birth. But they went the full opposite of that. &#8230;
I think what’s getting people talking — or rather, why everyone was watching these TikToks obsessively over the weekend and picking them apart — is how regressive the ads seem,” Tashjian stated. “The line about her having great jeans — several people are suggesting in the comments on Instagram and TikTok that this is a ‘pro-eugenics ad.’ Whether or not that’s the case, it is part of a wave of imagery of influencers, pop stars and musicians that feels tethered to the values of another time.</blockquote>
You&#8217;re going to see a Right-wing backlash building. The “values of another time” would be men thinking attractive women are attractive, because attractive women are attractive. If that&#8217;s “tethered to the values of another time,” then that would be tethered to the values of all time.
There&#8217;s nothing new there. If that were not the case, sales of Ozempic would be significantly lower.
“For the past five or six years, it seemed like fashion and pop culture were very interested in — even dedicated to — body positivity. Now we’re being fed a lot of images of thinness, whiteness, and unapologetic wealth porn, what with this campaign, influencers like Alix Earle and Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover,” Tashjian claimed.
“Those Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ads are weird. Like fascist weird, like Nazi propaganda, weird. Should we be surprised that a company whose name is literally American Eagle is making fascist propaganda like this?” a TikTok influencer stated. “A blonde-haired blue-eyed white woman is talking about her genes.” 
This is crazy. A play on the words “jeans” and “genes” is not meant to be a reference to the Nazis.
Another thing: let’s be real: when people look at Sydney Sweeney — I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here for you lefties — her eye color and hair color are the third and fourth things people are looking at when they look at Sydney Sweeney.
When she says she has good genes, people are not thinking about her eye color or her hair color.
The Right has split on this ad. There are many people in the online space who look at the insane reaction of the Left to this, where they are calling it Nazi propaganda, suggesting that it is all about “the male gaze” and the “evils of the male gaze,” “tethered to another time,” and all this crap, and they respond, “This ad is great. It&#8217;s making America great again. This ad is bringing back what makes America awesome. This is a reversion to the heterosexual norm.”
This ad can be both a rejection of the post-gender insanity push by the Left, but also be a piece leaning toward very softcore pornography. Being a moral traditionalist, I do not actually believe that commercials like this are great for America.
I think it&#8217;s good to expose the Left for being totally insane, and I think it is worthwhile noting that the Left is totally crazy. But if you&#8217;re a traditionally moral person, if you&#8217;re somebody who&#8217;s a churchgoer, a synagogue-goer, and you look at this ad, you&#8217;re saying, “This looks like a way to get a bunch of young people to buy jeans by showing Sydney Sweeney&#8217;s butt and breasts.”
Is that good for culture? Is that good for male/female relations? Is the over-sexualization of our society a generally good thing or a generally bad thing?
Two things can be true at once. One, the Left is totally insane and there&#8217;s nothing Nazi-esque about a jeans pun, and the anti-Left is correct to mock the Left for being totally insipid and insane.
But the Right is also split between people who don&#8217;t hold any sort of traditional values and people who do hold those traditional values, and they exist in an uneasy coalition.
It will be interesting to see how that coalition works moving forward.

US-ENTERTAINMENT-MEDIA-MUSIC-FESTIVAL-SXSW

The Internet’s Cleavage Over Sydney Sweeney’s Commercial

actors

advertising

Social Issues

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.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

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

Jon Stewart

Legacy Media

Stephen Colbert

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not have their multi-year deal with Netflix renewed when it expires in September, according to a <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/35969847/prince-harry-meghan-netflix-deal-axed/">report</a> from The Sun.
The royal couple has launched several projects with the streaming giant since the announcement of their $100 million deal in 2020. These specials and shows have had varying degrees of success, with the 2022 docuseries “Harry &amp; Meghan” remaining the most popular among them. 
Meanwhile, other projects, such as Prince Harry’s “Polo” and Markle’s lifestyle series “With Love, Meghan,” have failed to capture the attention of Netflix’s audience. In a recent <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-the-first-half-of-2025">Engagement Report</a> put out by the streamer, the “Polo” documentary was listed as number 3,436 on the list of shows ranked by most-watched, while Markle’s new series came in at number 383.
A second season of “With Love, Meghan” has already been filmed and is set to debut in September. Her first <a href="https://people.com/chrissy-teigen-appear-season-2-meghan-markle-netflix-series-with-love-meghan-11736557">confirmed</a> guest star is Chrissy Teigen.
“There’s no animosity from either side,” an unnamed source told The Sun of Netflix’s decision not to renew the contract. “Things have just run their course.”
The insider also discussed why “Harry &amp; Meghan” was the most successful project so far. 
“Netflix were clever in that they got a hell of a lot of viewers for the first documentary series, and knew, realistically, it would prove the zenith of content from the Montecito pair,&#8221; the source said, noting that the partnership ending represents a &#8220;huge loss of revenue.&#8221;
“They’re not unhappy with how things turned out — they got those initial hits, and produced one of the most talked-about shows of all time,&#8221; the insider added. 
Prince Harry and Markle have had a hard time achieving fame and success in the United States after quitting their full-time working royal roles in 2020 and moving to California permanently. Critics have been vocal in their distaste, as reflected on social media after news of the Netflix partnership&#8217;s end came to light.
“Good. The grifters are out of business,” one person <a href="https://x.com/TerryinSoCalif/status/1948052133389213733">wrote</a>, echoing what many others were saying.
“I am only surprised that Netflix thought this was a good business decision in the first place,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/julie_mcbane/status/1947997610658128182">observed</a>.
“Thank goodness. Insufferable fools,” a third agreed.
&nbsp;

Harry and Meghan

Netflix Pulls Plug On $100M Deal With Prince Harry And Meghan Markle

Prince Harry And Meghan Markle's $100M Netflix Deal Not Getting Renewed

Meghan Markle

Prince Harry

Royal Family

Late-night host Stephen Colbert went on a lengthy tirade against President Donald Trump during Monday night&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Late Show,&#8221; addressing a <a href="https://puck.news/how-hollywood-is-processing-the-colbert-cancellation/">report</a> that his program loses $40 million per season.
Several comedians and fellow hosts showed up for the latest episode to support Colbert and bash Trump. 
At one point, Colbert responded to Trump&#8217;s celebratory social media post about the show being canceled, in which the president taunted Colbert, saying, &#8220;His talent was even less than his ratings.&#8221;
&#8220;How dare you, sir,&#8221; Colbert said. &#8220;Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go f*** yourself!&#8221;
&#8220;Cancel culture has gone too far,&#8221; Colbert said during his monologue. &#8220;Last week, we learned that &#8216;The Late Show&#8217; will be ending in May. I want to thank everybody who reached out to me over the weekend, including one text from an unknown number, offering a high-paying IT work-from-home job for only two to three hours a day. Yes, I am very interested and I will be sending you my routing number in May. Daddy needs a job.&#8221;
The host mentioned how it&#8217;s now sunk in that CBS is &#8220;killing&#8221; his show. 
&#8220;But they made one mistake. They left me alive. Now, for the next 10 months, the gloves are off. I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump. I don&#8217;t care for him. Doesn&#8217;t have the skillset to be president,&#8221; Colbert continued.
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Earlier this month, Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-scores-16m-payout-from-paramount-after-exposing-deceptively-edited-kamala-interview">agreed to a $16 million settlement</a> in a lawsuit Trump had brought accusing the media outlet of election interference. The lawsuit stemmed from an interview CBS News&#8217;s &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; 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.
&#8220;People have been speculating about the timing of this decision from Paramount, and they&#8217;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,&#8221; said Colbert. &#8220;When obviously CBS saw my upper lip and boom, canceled. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is stashism.&#8221;
&#8220;They clarified that the cancellation was purely a financial decision. But how could it purely be a financial decision if &#8216;The Late Show&#8217; is number one in ratings? A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff&#8217;s parents and spouses,&#8221; Colbert went on. 
Next, he accused CBS insiders of leaking financial details to justify the cancellation.
&#8220;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,&#8221; he said, seemingly referencing the amount of the settlement.

‘Go F*** Yourself’: Colbert Unleashes Anti-Trump Tirade Amid Report His Show Loses $40M Annually

Paramount

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

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