CBS has announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end after its next season in May 2026, citing—what else?—“financial considerations.” The network didn’t elaborate much, but rest assured, it has absolutely nothing to do with Colbert’s recent on-air jabs at CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, for quietly settling a $16 million lawsuit with former President Donald Trump.
Because let’s be honest: if there’s one thing media conglomerates love, it’s thoughtful dissent during election cycles.
The announcement has sparked some raised eyebrows. (In Washington, that’s the equivalent of a tantrum.) Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for “transparency.” Rep. Adam Schiff used words like “concerning.” Meanwhile, CBS is just over here with its pockets turned inside out, insisting that canceling its top-rated late-night show is merely the result of… economic feng shui.
And maybe it is. Network television isn’t exactly thriving. Ad revenue’s shaky, audiences are fragmented, and people under 40 mostly consume news via YouTube, TikTok, and that one overly dramatic cousin who posts long Instagram stories with inspirational music. So perhaps CBS really did just run the numbers and decide to Marie Kondo its programming.
But the timing. Oh, the timing.
Colbert had recently taken issue with Paramount’s legal strategy—namely, handing over a settlement check to a former president known less for diplomacy and more for, well, everything else. In return, the host delivered a few carefully crafted monologues that raised moral questions and probably a few corporate blood pressures. Still, it’s almost certainly coincidence that his show was pulled right after that. Almost.
In the end, The Late Show was one of the last late-night holdouts still invested in saying something, not just filling airtime. Colbert delivered sharp, character-driven monologues that felt less like shtick and more like a national processing session. He was funny, sure—but he was also angry, tired, hopeful, and deeply human. It was satire with a soul, not just punchlines with cue cards.
And so, come May 2026, he’ll take his final bow.
The silver lining? We’ll still have streaming platforms offering twelve spinoffs of NCIS and reboots of shows that never needed rebooting. And, if we’re lucky, one brave intern with a smartphone who’ll say what the rest of us are thinking—probably while walking their dog.
But for now, let’s pour one out for The Late Show. Not because it couldn’t survive. But because maybe it got a little too good at noticing what we weren’t supposed to say out loud.