Colbert says its reasonable to think Late | TV Shows

Stephen Colbert believes it’s “reasonable” for people to suspect The Late Show’s cancellation was politically motivated.

The 61-year-old host surprised audiences in July when he announced his CBS late-night program would end in May 2026. The announcement got here shortly after he lambasted guardian company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump, and while the studio awaited approval for its Skydance merger.

Although CBS maintained the choice to cancel the show was “purely financial” and unrelated to “other matters happening at Paramount”, quite a few observers questioned that rationalization. The Washington DC native himself has just lately declined to “engage in that speculation,” but did say it was “reasonable.”

The comic was just lately named one of GQ’s Men of the Year and graced the duvet. In an interview with the outlet, he spoke about the cancellation and addressed a major principle behind it.

When questioned whether or not he thought the show was canceled for political causes, he told the latest issue of GQ, “That’s not my reaction to it. My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: That is the network’s decision.”

“I can understand why people would have 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’s ever going to tell us – decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit.”

“And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual. If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once.”

However, while Stephen acknowledged the theories are “reasonable,” he acknowledged that he had no curiosity in “picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street,” in regard to them.

Stephen confessed he has “feelings” about The Late Show’s axing, but added that it could not be “fruitful” to his relationship with the community to “engage in that speculation” for the next 9 months when the show formally ends.

Stephen acknowledged his shock at the choice, citing his constantly “great relationship with CBS” as one of the explanations.

He expressed, “It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this.We do budgets and everything like that. We’ve done cuts and stuff like that. So that’s why it was surprising to me, as I said, but I meant what I said [on air] the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit on it.”

Stephen went on to say the community has been “great partners” and “supportive” when The Late Show was “finding our legs.” The Late Show started in 2015, following the end of Stephen’s Comedy Central late-night satire show, The Colbert Report (2005-2014).

He also shared with the outlet that he came upon not from CBS but from his supervisor.