Jake Tapper Rips CBS Parent Company Over Colbert Cancellation: ‘Paramount Is In a Bend-the-Knee Phase’ to Trump

Jake Tapper ripped into Paramount for canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, saying the media conglomerate was in a “bend-the-knee phase” to President Donald Trump.

On Friday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper noted that Trump has repeatedly attacked media figures who are critical of him.

“Obviously, President Trump has made no secret of his hatred of being mocked, specifically, the jokes that people like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel make at his expense,” Tapper said. “Paramount is in a bend-the-knee phase. Paramount, which owns CBS. Paramount is attempting to please President Trump as Paramount’s Shari Redstone waits for the Trump administration’s blessing for a lucrative merger with a company called Skydance.”

Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly met with Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr today to discuss the multibillion-dollar deal.

This all comes as CBS recently finalized a $16 million settlement with Trump over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a lawsuit Tapper quoted legal experts in calling “substantively very weak”.

Notably, Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe” just days before news of the cancellation broke.

“Paramount was determined to settle with the president, and it’s that timing that CBS was no doubt attempting to head off in their announcement of the termination of the Colbert show, which was doing very well in ratings, by the way,” Tapper added.

Bill Carter, former media reporter for The New York Times, later joined Tapper’s show to add that there was “no rational explanation except it’s before the merger is going to be finalized” for the timing of the cancellation announcement, as the show is set to run one more season.