The Late Present with Stephen Colbert will finish in Could 2026, the CBS tv community introduced in a shock assertion on Thursday.
The transfer “is solely a monetary determination in opposition to a difficult backdrop in late evening [television],” and “will not be associated in any approach to the present’s efficiency, content material or different issues,” CBS mentioned.
The announcement comes simply two weeks after CBS mum or dad firm Paramount settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump stemming from a CBS interview together with his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris.
The transfer brings a near the greater than three-decade previous programme, leaving the community and not using a late-night comedy speak present for the primary time since 1993.
Host Stephen Colbert broke the information at a taping earlier on Thursday night, triggering a refrain of boos from the reside studio viewers.
“I do wish to say that the oldsters at CBS have been nice companions,” Colbert mentioned, including: “And naturally, I am grateful to you, the viewers, who’ve joined us each evening in right here, on the market, all around the globe.”
Colbert had been knowledgeable of the choice on Wednesday evening, he informed the viewers throughout his Thursday monologue.
“Yeah, I share your feeling,” he mentioned, as the group within the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York shouted “no” and booed.
“It is not simply the top of our present, nevertheless it’s the top of The Late Present on CBS. I am not being changed. That is all simply going away,” he continued. “It’s a unbelievable job. I want anyone else was getting it.”
The Late Present was created by CBS, the BBC’s US information associate, in 1993 as a competitor to NBC. It got here after a dispute between hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno over who ought to succeed Johnny Carson on the wildly-popular NBC’s Tonight Present.
Colbert took over the CBS programme from Letterman in 2015, and has turn into one in every of Trump’s staunchest critics on late evening TV.
Earlier than taking up the job at The Late Present, Colbert had been the host of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central – a programme which skewered American conservative politics and tradition.
The announcement of the ending of the programme got here amid talks between Paramount and Skydance Media to merge the 2 corporations, a transfer that may require approval from the US federal authorities.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff posted on X on Thursday that he had completed taping an interview with Colbert simply earlier than the cancellation was introduced.
He questioned whether or not the announcement was tied to the $16m (£12m) settlement the community agreed to pay to Trump, writing: “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Present for political causes, the general public deserved to know”.
The settlement got here after Trump sued CBS final October alleging the community had deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes information programme together with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris, to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic get together”.
Paramount mentioned it might pay to settle the swimsuit, however with the cash allotted to Trump’s future presidential library, not paid to him “straight or not directly”.
Colbert has been a significant critic of Trump, and has hosted many Democratic politicians throughout his tenure as host. Final month, he held a dialogue with Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist main the race to be New York Metropolis’s subsequent mayor.
The choice to cancel the programme comes as networks wrestle to draw youthful viewers, amid competitors from on-line streamers and podcasts, together with elevated prices of reside tv.
“We contemplate Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and can retire ‘The Late Present’ franchise,” CBS mentioned in its assertion.
“We’re proud that Stephen referred to as CBS dwelling. He and the printed will likely be remembered within the pantheon of greats that graced late evening tv.”
Rival broadcast networks, ABC and NBC, will proceed to air their late-night speak reveals.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Dwell! will proceed taping within the fall, whereas NBC hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have signed contracts to proceed internet hosting The Tonight Present and Late Evening till 2028, in accordance with The Hollywood Reporter.
Reacting to the information of the top of Colbett’s present, Kimmel appeared to take purpose on the community, posting on his Instagram story: “Love you Stephen. [Forget] you and all of your Sheldons [a reference to the show Big Bang Theory] CBS.”
Former Late Present band chief Jon Batiste described the outgoing speak present host as “the best to ever do it.”
“My admiration and appreciation for you is bottomless,” wrote filmmaker Judd Apatow. “Excited to see what different brilliance you place into the world.”
“I’m extraordinarily unhappy. I like you, Stephen,” supplied Snow White actress Rachel Zegler.
Severance star Adam Scott added: “Love you Stephen. That is absolute bull… and I for one am wanting ahead to the following 10 months of reveals.”
Actor and director Ben Stiller posted on X that he was “sorry to listen to” CBS was “canceling among the finest reveals they’ve.
“Wishing all of the individuals who work so laborious on that present all the perfect.”