Jimmy Kimmel Throws Tantrum After Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation

Media circles and talk show viewers were stunned on Friday by the news that CBS was canceling Stephen Colbert’s late-night show after a decade, ending the comedian’s career with little advance notice.

Outrage quickly followed from his peers, none more so than Jimmy Kimmel, who said “f**k you” to CBS for axing his friend after Colbert took a shot at his corporate overlords for giving President Donald Trump a “big fat bribe” for suing them.

“Love you Stephen. F**k you and all your Sheldons CBS,” Kimmel wrote on his personal Instagram page, an apparent reference to the network’s hit comedy series “The Big Bang Theory” spinoff, “Young Sheldon.”

The ABC host’s outburst comes after CBS said nixing Colbert’s show at the end of the 2026 season was “purely a financial decision.”

But that explanation didn’t pass muster with Kimmel and company as they relentlessly accused CBS of firing Colbert for his criticism of the network’s settlement. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart took a similar shot at CBS and Paramount, which oversees his show and is in the middle of a merger with CBS, during his one-night-a-week appearance earlier this month.

In a statement, CBS called their 10-year talkshow host “irreplaceable” and that “the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late-night television.”

Colbert will be closing an even bigger chapter for the network: its entire late-night talk show division, which began in 1993 when David Letterman launched “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

Following Letterman’s retirement in 2015, CBS recruited Colbert from Comedy Central, where his “Daily Show” spinoff, “The Colbert Report,” posted equally meteoric audience metrics as viewers flocked to his alter-ego’s farcical takes on news of the day.

During taping at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theatre on Thursday night, Colbert kicked off his monologue by saying, “Before we start the show, I want to let you know something I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the ‘Late Show’ in May.”

Boos rained down from the audience. “I share your feelings,” Colbert replied.

He assured viewers that he was not “being replaced” but rather CBS had chosen to end its late-night programming altogether in favor of more profitable series.

“I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I’m so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home,” he said.

Colbert expressed how “grateful” he was for his fans who “joined us every night in here, out there, all around the world, Mr and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.”

“I’m grateful to share the stage with this band every night. I am extraordinarily deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here,” he said, per the NY Post.

“We get to do this show for each other — every day, all day. And I’ve had the pleasure and responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years.”

He added he’s “looking forward” to putting on the show with the “usual gang of idiots for another 10 months.”