Remember when TV was just fun? Late night shows used to make everyone laugh no matter if you were a Democrat or Republican. Those days seem long gone. Now when you turn on the TV at night, it feels more like watching a political rally than a comedy show.
The world of late night TV has been shrinking for years. Young people don’t even watch regular TV anymore – they’re all on YouTube and TikTok. The few shows still on air have been fighting over a smaller and smaller slice of the audience pie.
CBS just dropped a bombshell announcement: “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is being canceled. The network confirmed the show will end after the 2025-2026 season wraps up next May. Even more surprising? CBS isn’t planning to replace Colbert with a new host or show.
From ‘The Post Millennial’:
CBS will cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at the end of the 2025–2026 television season, the network announced Thursday. The decision marks a significant move that could signal CBS’s departure from late-night programming altogether.
The announcement came during Thursday evening’s taping, where Colbert informed his studio audience that next season would be the show’s last.
“Next year will be our last season,” Colbert said according to CNN as audience members reacted with audible disappointment. “The network will be ending our show in May,” he added. “It’s the end of The Late Show on CBS… This is all just going away.”
Colbert broke the news to his audience during Thursday’s taping, saying he had only learned about the decision the night before. The crowd responded with boos, but the reality is clear – after years of declining viewership, the curtain is closing on CBS’s flagship late-night program.
Woke Comedy Falls Flat
The cancellation comes as no surprise to many viewers who stopped watching years ago. What started as a comedy show gradually morphed into nightly political lectures. Colbert’s sharp turn to the far left alienated half the country who just wanted to laugh before bed, not be scolded about their political views.
Night after night, Colbert focused on attacking conservatives while serving softball questions to liberal guests. The result? A show that spoke only to one side of America while mocking the other. That’s not a recipe for broad appeal in a divided nation.
CBS claims the cancellation is “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” They insist it “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” But the timing has raised eyebrows across the media landscape.
Curious Timing
Just days before Colbert’s cancellation, CBS parent company Paramount Global settled a lawsuit with President Trump for $16 million. The lawsuit centered on CBS News editing a “60 Minutes” interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.
Even more interesting? According to NPR, Colbert had criticized his own parent company for this settlement just three days before learning his show was canceled.
Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren quickly jumped to Colbert’s defense, suggesting political motives behind the cancellation. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,” Warren posted on social media.
But the simplest explanation might be the most likely – Americans were just tired of the same political jokes night after night. When late night hosts forget their main job is to entertain everyone, not just like-minded political allies, viewers eventually change the channel.
The most telling detail in this whole story might be that CBS isn’t planning to replace Colbert’s show with anything. The network seems ready to abandon late night television entirely rather than try again with a different approach.
Perhaps this signals a bigger shift in American entertainment. Viewers are speaking with their remotes, and the message is clear – they want shows that bring people together through laughter, not drive them apart through politics. For CBS and Colbert, that lesson came too late, but for the rest of Hollywood, it might be just in time.
Key Takeaways
- CBS cancels “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” with no plans for a replacement program
- Timing coincides with CBS parent company’s $16 million settlement with President Trump
- Colbert’s increasingly political content likely alienated mainstream American viewers
- The cancellation may signal a broader shift away from politically divisive entertainment
Sources: The Post Millennial, NPR
