Stephen Colbert spent years swinging for Republicans night after night, building his late‑night brand on snarky monologues, constant Trump takedowns, and a steady parade of progressive guests. But now that CBS has announced The Late Show will be ending in May 2026, suddenly Democrats are scrambling to spin a cancellation into a full‑blown conspiracy theory. And you can almost hear the panic in their tweets.
Stephen Colbert announcing to his audience that his show has been cancelled.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 18, 2025
Adam Schiff was first out of the gate, declaring that “the public deserves to know” if CBS and Paramount “ended the Late Show for political reasons.” Elizabeth Warren quickly followed, turning up the drama with capital letters: CBS axed Colbert’s show just “THREE DAYS” after he ripped into Paramount for that $16 million settlement with Trump — a deal she gleefully called “bribery.” If you feel the ground shaking, it’s the sound of two senators stomping their feet because one of their favorite mouthpieces won’t have a nightly platform much longer.
Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled.
If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) July 17, 2025
Of course, CBS released the kind of statement you’d expect from a company that knows this story could explode: nothing to see here, purely financial, no link to politics, nothing to do with Paramount’s headaches or Colbert’s content.
But that didn’t stop the speculation. After all, the timing is suspicious enough to keep the rumor mill churning — just days after Colbert mocked his own bosses on air, joking that new Skydance owners wouldn’t be able to “put pressure” on him “if they can’t find him.” Three days later, the show’s death notice drops. Coincidence or calculated message?
BREAKING — CBS has CANCELED The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, set to conclude in May 2026.
CBS Statement: “THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT will end in May 2026 at the close of the 2025-26 broadcast season.”
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging… pic.twitter.com/d0RiAq4Ds1
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) July 17, 2025
And let’s not forget the backdrop. Paramount’s proposed merger with Skydance has media insiders buzzing that late‑night’s leftward tilt might finally be biting into corporate bottom lines. With ratings sliding across the board and streaming giants eating their lunch, the suits might just be looking for a way to clean house — and Colbert, despite his awards and adoration from blue‑check Twitter, hasn’t been immune to those numbers slipping.
But try telling that to Warren, who’s already floating the idea that this is some sort of Trump‑era purge, as though a single legal settlement gave him the power to erase her favorite comedian from television.
Then there’s the cherry on top: Colbert himself became one of the loudest critics of that Trump settlement, calling it a “big fat bribe” on national TV. For a network nervously trying to navigate a multibillion‑dollar merger, it’s not hard to imagine that kind of public scorn didn’t exactly help his standing in the boardroom.
Now layer in the fact that Colbert recently gave airtime to a socialist mayoral candidate — yes, the same show Schiff and Warren are now canonizing — and you can see why execs might have decided the risk wasn’t worth the reward.
