Daily Show co-creator slams CBS for axing Stephen | TV Shows

The Daily Show’s co-creator is joining the many criticizing CBS’s decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which has been referred to as a “warning shot” to other late-night hosts.

Since Colbert announced that the upcoming season would be the last, a decision that came just days after he skewered CBS’ parent network, Paramount, for paying President Trump a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit that was said to have “no merit,” many have spoken out against his firing.

He has found immense support from the other hosts of late-night shows, including Jon Stewart, who previously criticized the network for its decision and said it was trying to appease the “fragile” President.

Now, Lizz Winstead, who co-created Stewart’s show on Comedy Central, is also skewering the decision.

In an interview on MSNBC’s Velshi Sunday, she echoed her previous comments in a Rolling Stone op-ed, casting doubt on CBS’s claim that the show was canceled purely for financial reasons.

“Certainly no one is going to say, ‘Oh, we’re thriving in television,’ she said. “People don’t watch late night the same way they used to.”

“Everybody knows that, but also to just drop the franchise itself? It’s not [just] Stephen Colbert. It’s a double. It’s a twofer, right? And that says to me: feat: We’re afraid.”

She also suggested that the decision was due to political involvement and pressure from Trump, who would have the authority to block Paramount from their merger deal with Skydance.

“When the truth tellers are the comics, and those comics are actually resonating with the people that Donald Trump has not been able to reach, then he’s got to go Plan B,” she said. “And Plan B is, ‘Oh, look at me. I have a merger…I can ask for what I want, and I can silence those voices.”

The $8 billion merger was approved one week after Colbert announced his show had been canceled.

Winstead previously skewered the decision in her op-ed, saying that the reason CBS gave about financial reasons was one she absolutely didn’t believe.

“Stephen isn’t expensive. He’s a threat,” she wrote. “A wildly popular, truth-telling comic with moral clarity is dangerous in this moment. Especially when he’s white, make, and too influential to be dismissed as fringe.”

Many have speculated that the decision had political motivations due to Paramount settling the lawsuit with Trump over a 60-minute interview with Kamala Harris during the election, which he claimed was deceptively edited.

“The word is, and its a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,” he wrote.

“These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television,” he continued. “It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”