‘Something Changed’: Colbert Skeptical His Show Was Canceled Solely For Financial Reasons In Dishy Exit Interview

Stephen Colbert made clear he doubts his show was canceled for the reasons cited by CBS, as critics theorize his exit is due to vocal opposition to President Donald Trump.

Colbert sat down for an interview with John Koblin for The New York Times as his eponymous Late Show is set to end next month. Colbert has hosted the late-night show for 11 seasons. CBS announced that “pure financial” reasons were behind the cancellation.

While Colbert stressed he did not “dispute” CBS’s reasoning for the cancellation amid falling ratings and ad dollars in late-night, he also cast doubt on it.

“I do not dispute their rationale. I do make jokes about it. But I also completely understand why people would say (A) that doesn’t make sense to me and (B) that seems fishy to me, because the network did it to themselves by bending the knee to the Trump administration over a $20 billion, settled for $16 million, completely frivolous lawsuit,” Colbert said, referring to a $16 million settlement CBS made with Trump over a lawsuit against reporting made by 60 Minutes.

Colbert’s cancellation also came amid Trump’s FCC approving a merger between Paramount — the parent company of CBS — and Skydance in 2025.

Colbert acknowledged current struggles for traditional networks and late night programming, but added, “two things can be true.”

“It’s possible that two things can be true. Broadcast can be in trouble,” he said. “They cannot monetize because of things like YouTube, because of the competition of streaming. They’ve got the books, and I do not have any desire to debate them over what they say their business model is and how it does not work for them anymore. But less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed.”

Colbert said he’s “liked” working with CBS and wants to end the relationship amicably. In the lengthy interview, he also discussed his initial instinct to avoid politics and topical subjects when he took over Late Night, a philosophy that has not held true over the years as Trump and Republicans have become regular targets of the former host of The Colbert Report.

“I was like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, or is it some other movie? He buried his guns,” he said. “And I’m like, you know, I buried those damn guns. I was talking to Paul Dinello — he’s one of my oldest friends and one of my producers here — and he’s like, ‘You’re having fun, and people love to see that.” And I said, “But that means I got to go dig up the guns.’ And he says, ‘Buddy, that’s the part the audience wants to see.'”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!