CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s Late Show after months of political pressure, a move the article links to President Trump’s broader campaign against critics. The piece traces the decision to Colbert’s June 21, 2026 loss, connects it to the timing of the Ellison
Stephen Colbert’s last days on CBS began to feel less like a routine farewell and more like a reckoning—one played out in boardrooms, regulators, and a president who, as the article puts it, would “have all his comedian critics fired if he could.”
The cancellation landed with a precision that made it hard to ignore. Eleven months earlier. as the Ellison family sought final approval from Trump’s FCC to buy Viacom-Paramount—then the owner of CBS—it was announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would be canceled on May 21. 2026. CBS said the show’s ratings weren’t enough to overcome its cost. arguing that even with high ratings. the program was “too expensive to make money for the network.” But the article says the timing was different: the FCC meeting around the same period. a $16 million 60 Minutes settlement paid to Trump. and David Ellison’s hiring of Bari Weiss—The Free Press’s conservative editor and co-owner—as editor in chief of CBS News were all signals that the Ellisons were offering something in exchange for peace.
By the time Colbert’s fate became official. he was already part of a widening pattern for critics of President Trump. The article lists three examples: Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary for defying Trump over the release of the Epstein files. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana lost his primary for voting to impeach President Trump in 2021. And now. Stephen Colbert—who the article suggests represents a sharper kind of loss for Trump than the others—had his show ended.
Colbert’s political edge, according to the piece, was real but not uniquely brutal compared to other comedy rivals. It argues that his jokes were not harder. meaner. or more piercing than Jimmy Kimmel’s or those on SNL’s Weekend Update. It points to this week’s monologue as evidence: The Late Show dissected what the article describes as the absurd “negotiation” between Trump and his own IRS for the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. using a series of
clips from seemingly dozens of Trump interviews stitched together to portray that negotiation and highlight what the author frames as brazen corruption. The article contrasts that comedic target with other examples of sharpness elsewhere—saying South Park’s scene showing Trump nude is more vicious. and adding that Kimmel’s recent joke about Melania Trump carrying “the glow of an expectant widow” is the kind of material that can inflame the people closest to power.
The core claim of the article is that the decision wasn’t only about comedy—it was about what kind of comedian Colbert had become. It reminds readers that Colbert’s earlier character work. including Stephen Colbert. host of The Colbert Report. could land harder. including a 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner face-to-face monologue with then-President George W. Bush. That night. Colbert presented himself as Bush’s biggest fan. celebrating Bush and “commiserat[ing] with his hero” that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”.
But the author argues that the country changed—so did what presidents are willing to tolerate. In the past. the article says. a president could be dressed down by a comedian and still pretend to have fun. Now. it depicts a president demanding that comedians be fired for transgressions. and says Kimmel. too. faced punishment after a joke on Trump’s “insincere public grieving” over Charlie Kirk’s killing. Kimmel was suspended. the article says. “only because. ” after the announcement of Colbert’s firing. public outrage over Trump silencing another comic led ABC to back off.
So why Colbert? The article’s answer is blunt: Colbert was the comedian critic Trump could remove because CBS’s new owners were willing to “sell out their own talent” to clinch their deal—described as they did when they struck agreements for their news division.
What made that loss sting. though. is the way the piece describes Colbert’s deeper purpose: more philosophical than his peers. and built to work against fear. The article quotes Colbert’s own words from 2007 in Parade magazine: “Not living in fear is a great gift because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy?. You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing. I defy you to be afraid.” It then quotes Colbert again from 2012. in an interview connected to Playboy and Eric Spitznagel. saying: “Fear is an attempt to impose tyranny over someone’s mind. It’s an act of oppression.”.
That philosophy, the article says, shaped the show’s tone. After an opening monologue often laying into Trump. Colbert generally kept the rest of The Late Show in an uplifting mood. with comedy pieces and guests. The band was called The Joy Machine—an intentional counterweight to the news cycle’s pressure. The author frames it as more than a style preference: an attempt to disarm the day’s Trump headlines. not out-snark them.
The article also argues that Trump’s approach to power has long depended on fear. It says “no president in American history has used fear on the American public like President Trump. ” adding that fear keeps the Republican Party in line. It describes Trump’s threats—of Iran. Greenland. and TV networks—as tools that sometimes succeed even when they prove empty or he backs down. And, in this telling, that is how the show ended.
In Colbert’s final weeks, the program leaned into high-profile guests and cameos. The article cites President Obama. Steven Spielberg. Bruce Springsteen. and on the last night. Sir Paul McCartney as the sole interview. It also says the final shows featured cameos ranging from Jon Stewart and Amy Sedaris to Robert De Niro. Neil deGrasse-Tyson. and Tig Notaro. describing the selection as feeling random and adding that Colbert didn’t explain the connections.
But it points to Monday’s “The Worst of The Late Show” as Colbert’s most interesting and touching sendoff. In that segment. the article says. Colbert brought forward several key writers and designers from his staff who got to present favorite bits that were cut over the preceding 11 years. The author frames this as less about whether they were overlooked gems or bad calls by Colbert and more about giving longtime colleagues a moment to shine and a chance to say goodbye.
The article closes with the idea that while shows are canceled and hosts are replaced. this one is different because it was made possible by Trump. It invokes the censorship of Lenny Bruce—saying Bruce was thrown in jail and censored for jokes powerful people didn’t like—and the cancellation of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS in the 1960s and ’70s for telling jokes powerful people didn’t like. It argues that many of Colbert’s jokes about Trump will fade with tomorrow’s news. but that Trump has ensured a permanent cultural record by canceling him.
As the piece puts it, Trump has made sure Colbert will be remembered as a comic who “spoke truth to power,” while Trump will be remembered as a power that “could not handle his truth.”
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Stephen Colbert The Late Show CBS Trump FCC Ellison family Viacom-Paramount Bari Weiss CBS News 60 Minutes settlement anti-weaponization fund IRS May 21 2026 Thomas Massie Bill Cassidy Jimmy Kimmel