CBS has explained why it issued online takedown notices for Stephen Colbert’s first TV appearance since the company axed The Late Show.
The day after his final CBS show, Colbert, 62, showed up on Michigan public-access television as a guest host for an episode of the series Only in Monroe. The show mixed famous guests, including Donald Trump’s musical nemesis, Jack White, with local content about the town.
“It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV,” Colbert began, before taking another dig at the parent company of his canceled show. “I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount,” he said.
Shortly afterwards, social media onlookers flagged that Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, had issued takedown claims citing breach of copyright.
However, CBS has now revealed the reason for doing so.
“Stephen Colbert’s return to Monroe in the ‘Only in Monroe’ episode was financed and produced by CBS Studios and was posted on Stephen Colbert’s YouTube channel in collaboration with Monroe Community Media and ‘The Late Show’s’ YouTube channels,” a CBS spokesperson told Variety in a statement.
“As is our regular practice, we send copyright notices to unauthorized websites that post copyrighted content from CBS and our network/studio talent such as Stephen Colbert.”
The network added that it had decided to “waive further enforcement” of what it called the standard industry practice, pending further review.
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS for comment.
While Only in Monroe is now on Colbert’s YouTube channel, and has had over 415,000 views in two days, other users had the episode up faster, seemingly prompting the takedown notices.
A YouTube account called “The Desk” had more than 620,000 views for the episode, according to Variety. The channel posted on Sunday that Paramount had rescinded its copyright claim.
Another channel, The Mayday Network, posted that it had also been told to remove the episode. It had found Colbert’s Only in Monroe on another YouTube channel and shared it. The Mayday Network then posted a video explaining what happened.
“This is public access, it’s not part of a cable media conglomerate,” the channel said in a video called “Let’s See if Paramount Yanks This Video Too,” filmed before Paramount announced it had funded the episode. “We decided to re-air it because we wanted as many people as possible to see this.”
The original video is now back on the channel, and has had more than 110,000 views.
In a full-circle moment, Colbert launched The Late Show in 2015 by hosting an episode of Only in Monroe, which is still on YouTube.
The YouTube page for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which has collaborated with the Only in Monroe post, has 10.7 million subscribers. Colbert’s new channel has just under 90,000 subscribers.
Colbert more than doubled his usual ratings for his final episode on CBS last Thursday, with 6.74 million viewers.
