Stephen Colbert has addressed theories suggesting that the cancellation of “The Late Show” may have been politically motivated. While he acknowledged that such speculation is “a reasonable thing to think,” he ultimately declined to engage further on the topic.
In a recent cover story with GQ, Colbert was asked about the sudden announcement in July that his CBS show would be ending. This decision came shortly after Colbert criticized Paramount’s $16 million “60 Minutes” settlement with President Donald Trump during an on-air segment.
At the time, besides the “60 Minutes” lawsuit, Paramount was also awaiting FCC approval for its merger with Skydance. The company released a statement describing the cancellation as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and emphasized that it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
However, not everyone agreed with the official explanation. GQ writer Zach Baron pointed out to Colbert that political figures such as Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff suggested the move might have been politically motivated. Warren even wrote in a column for Variety:
> “Was it a coincidence that CBS canceled Colbert just three days after he spoke out? Are we sure that this wasn’t part of a wink-wink deal between the president and a giant corporation that needed something from his administration?”
President Trump celebrated the cancellation on his platform Truth Social, tweeting:
> “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
In response, Colbert expressed to GQ that this was not how he viewed the situation, though he understood why others might think so.
> “That’s not my reaction to it. My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: That is the network’s decision,” Colbert said. “I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation — I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us — decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.”
He continued:
> “If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem. So people can have their theories. I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation.”
Colbert’s show will officially end in May 2026. The late-night host also reflected on his relationship with CBS, describing it as positive.
> “It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this,” he said. “We do budgets and everything like that. We’ve done cuts and stuff like that. So that’s why it was surprising to me, as I said, but I meant what I said [on air] the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit on it. They’ve been great partners. They really have. They’ve been very supportive.”
As of now, representatives for CBS and the White House have not responded to Variety’s requests for comment.
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/stephen-colbert-confronts-theories-trump-late-show-canceled-1236568323/