Stephen Colbert turned to unexpected cancellation from Late Show earlier this year, refusing to say whether he was thinking CBS closed the show due to political pressure from the Trump administration, but to put it another way: “This opinion is reasonable.”
New GQ the cover story marks one of his first major press interviews since CBS folded. Late Show in July. Although the network cited financial problems, there was much speculation. about political pressure as the parent company of CBS, Paramountwas then about to complete a merger with Skydance Media, which required government approval (which it eventually received). Colbert, of course, spent years skewering Trump. Late Show and just two days before it was cancelled, joked that it was “technical name in legal circles” for CBS controversial $16 million settlement with Trump about dubious libel suit: “Big and fat bribe.”
Asked about the sequence of events and the final decision, Colbert remained emphatically diplomatic, although still frank: “My reaction as a professional in show business is to leave: it’s the network’s decision.”
However, Colbert did not hesitate to support those who linked the cancellation to political pressure. “I can understand why people had that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation, I'm not going to say who made that decision because I don't know; no one will ever tell us – they decided to write a check for $16 million to the President of the United States for a claim that their own lawyers, Paramount's own lawyers, said was completely without merit,” he said. “And it goes without saying that it is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation and the news department. So it's unclear to me why anyone would do this other than to curry favor with one person. If people have theories that link me to this, it's reasonable to think because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once.”
Colbert went some way to explaining why he chose his words so carefully. He still has a few months left at the helm. Late Show (scheduled for completion in May 2026), and he naturally didn't want to spoil his relationship with CBS, which he otherwise described as “excellent.”
But, Colbert added, that's why the network's decision was so “shocking,” especially after the show overhauled its budgets and cut them. At the same time remaining the number one show at night.
“I'm in show business. I want to do good work for the network and I'm very proud that we can do that for them,” he said. “And it just made our relationship better. Why do you want to be number one? To brag? No… The best reason to be number one is because the network doesn't fuck with you. That's the best reason to be number one. And we enjoyed nine years without fucking.”
