TV host Stephen Colbert has referenced the controversy around the axing of The Late Show in a personal farewell to viewers.
CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show in July last year, just three days after Colbert, 62, slammed the network’s MAGA-friendly parent company, Paramount, for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s big, fat bribe,” Colbert said on his show at the time.
CBS said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision” and unrelated to The Late Show‘s performance or content. Colbert has hosted the show since 2015.
For his final episode on Thursday, Colbert shared the regular off-air message he gives to the studio audience with the rest of the world.
“This show has been a joy for us to do for you,” Colbert said. “In fact, we call this show the ‘Joy Machine.’”
Keeping with the mechanical metaphor, Colbert said, “If you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.”
The host then referenced his previous show, The Colbert Report, which ran on Comedy Central between 2005 and 2014.
“On night one of The Colbert Report back in the day, I said, `Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you.’ And I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different,“ Colbert said. ”We were here to feel the news with you. And I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it.”
After the audience laughed, Colbert thanked viewers for “the energy you’ve given us,” saying “we love doing this show for you, but what we really, really love is doing this show with you.”
Speaking to People this week about speculation on the politics behind his show’s axing, Colbert said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration.
“I mean, how silly would it be? The ending of the show aside, which people can speculate about all they want, and I can’t argue with their speculations, but we’re clowns. How much does it diminish the office of the Presidency to even notice what we say?”
After CBS axed The Late Show last year, Trump weighed in on Truth Social.
“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!"
Trump previously called Colbert a “complete and total loser” in 2024, saying “CBS should terminate his contract and pick almost anyone, right off the street, who would do better, and for FAR LESS MONEY.”
He also claimed Colbert was “not funny...not wise” and VERY BORING" and that his show was “dying from a complete lack of viewers.”
Members of Colbert’s final studio audience at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York weighed in on Trump’s criticism of the talk show host on Thursday.
“It’s heartbreaking to see how one man can silence a whole nation,” Joshua McGehee told CNN.
“When Colbert can be silenced for being critical, it puts everyone at tension to be themselves and to speak their minds.”
Alan Tipert told CNN he came from Georgia “to witness the death of free speech.”
He added, “Everybody knows you don‘t cancel the number one show in late night because it‘s not making money. You do it because you don‘t like what he‘s saying. It just doesn‘t make sense.”
