Audience Jeers as Colbert Drops Cancellation News Amid Trump Rumors

Late-night host Stephen Colbert drew jeers when he announced The Late Show’s cancellation just weeks after his employer’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.

Fifteen days after Paramount announced that they would pay Trump $16 million to settle what most experts consider to be a meritless lawsuit over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, CBS announced the end of The Late Show.

That announcement also came just three days after Colbert nuked the company over the deal on the air, calling it a “big fat bribe.”

On Thursday night’s edition of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the star — a vocal critic of the president — broke the news to his audience in a cold open that included gratitude for his company — and nary a mention of Trump:

STEPHEN COLBERT: Oh, hey, everybody. We’ve got a great show for you tonight. Senator Adam Schiff was my guest. We harmonized on “Seven Bridges Road.” What a voice. I cried.

But before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season.

The network will be ending “The Late Show” in May, and… [booing] Yeah, I share your feelings.

It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of “The Late Show” on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. [booing] And I do want to say, I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I’m so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home.

And of course I’m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us. [cheering] Every night in here, out there, all around the world, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.

I’m grateful to share the stage with this band, these artists over here every night. [cheering]

And I am extraordinarily deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here. We get to do this show. [cheering] We get to do this show for each other every day all day, and I’ve had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last ten years.

Let me tell you, it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it. And it’s a job that I’m looking forward to doing with his usual gang of idiots for another ten months. It’s going to be fun.

LOUIS CATO: Yeah!

STEPHEN COLBERT: Y’all ready?

LOUIS CATO: We are going to lock in. Let’s go.

STEPHEN COLBERT: Y’all ready? Y’all ready? Okay. That’s all I wanted to say. Dante? Let’s do the show.

MR. HAND: Jazz cowboy. Drop it on the poof!

Watch above via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.