BREAKING: Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show Has Been Cancelled

CBS is axing “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in May 2026, the host told an audience at a taping Thursday. The announcement comes just two days after Colbert lashed out at CBS for settling its lawsuit with President Donald Trump after the network was caught editing its interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“I am offended,” Colbert said in his monologue Monday night. “I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.” He then joked that the technical term for the settlement would be ” big fat bribe.”

The news of the show’s cancellation was further confirmed in a press release sent from CBS with a link to a clip of Colbert’s announcement on Instagram.

The left-wing comedian, who previously hosted a show on Comedy Central before joining the mainstream late night circuit, began by telling his audience that he was sharing information he had just been told the night before. “Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the Late Show in May… it’s the end of the Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he said.

The network, which has aired “The Late Show” with Colbert as its host since 2015, said it is ending the franchise after a “historic run.”

“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise at that time,” CBS executives said in a joint statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” they added. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was just named in a criminal referral for mortgage fraud, lashed out at CBS after learning of the show’s cancellation. The vehemently anti-Trump lawmaker added that he had just wrapped up a segment with Colbert when he got the news.

“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know,” Schiff posted on X. “And deserve better.

In the fall of 2015, Colbert took over for legendary late night host in David Letterman after his retirement. While Colbert’s ratings remain high relative to the time slot, ratings for late night television have declined dramatically from industry peaks.

Colbert’s average of 2.4 million viewers represents a nearly 50 percent decline from Letterman’s figures for the 2004-2005 season, when he averaged 4.1 million total viewers per episode, according to Nielsen data.

In 1993, Letterman’s debut episode drew 23 million viewers.