Don't Cry for Stephen Colbert
Cry for the death of a free American media
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I saw a post on Threads yesterday that encapsulated all of my fears about this particular Substack piece. The poster wrote, “The silver lining for Stephen Colbert is that he’s getting to see what people would be saying about him at his funeral.”
The last thing I want is for this post to sound like an obituary. Stephen Colbert is still very much alive, and I do not doubt that CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show marks the end of his career.
Colbert will be fine, both financially and creatively. However, I can’t say the same about the future of American media. Now that’s worth an obituary.
On Thursday evening, July 17, CBS announced it was ending The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after the 2025-2026 season. As Colbert clarified during the cold open below, the Tiffany network was lowering the curtains on the 32-year-old late-night institution, full stop.
He wasn’t being replaced.
According to CBS’s official announcement, obtained from The New York Times, killing The Late Show was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Now, if you haven’t been following the news, this decision actually makes financial sense. Late-night TV is an entirely different beast in 2025 than it was in 1993, when The Late Show premiered with David Letterman as its host (Colbert took over in 2015). But with the rise of streaming services, premium cable, social media, YouTube, and even Substack, the late-night TV landscape has dramatically changed over the past decade.
I know, because I watched those changes happen in real time, either in my capacity as a TV journalist or an avid late-night TV fan.
My enjoyment of late-night television hasn’t abated, but I’m old now. I can’t stay up until 11 p.m. to watch Colbert and his fellow late-night hosts skewer Donald Trump in real time. Like most viewers these days, I catch the monologues and good bits on YouTube the next morning.
So, I get it: There is a decent argument for canceling The Late Show based on significant shifts in the late-night landscape.
But I’m still not buying it, CBS.
Let’s take a look at some more facts, shall we?
Earlier this month, Paramount — CBS’s parent company — agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit the president brought against CBS News and 60 Minutes. Trump argued that the iconic news program 60 Minutes unfairly edited an interview with Kamala Harris to, per The New York Times, “interfere with the [2024 presidential] election.”
You heard of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” right? Well, this lawsuit was a “Big, Baseless, Bunch of Bullshit.”
But Paramount paid Trump anyway — in this case, another “B” word comes in handy here. As in, “bribe.”
The likely reason for this payoff is that Shari Redstone, the chair and controlling shareholder of Paramount, feared Trump’s lawsuit would impact her impending multibillion-dollar sale of her company to the film studio Skydance (which happens to be owned by David Ellison, a Trump-supporting tech billionaire).
The deal requires the Trump administration’s approval.
Stephen Colbert, who has never, ever minced words when it comes to Donald Trump, slammed his bosses at CBS for partaking in a “big, fat bribe” earlier this week:
CBS is now expecting us to believe that three days after Colbert called his own network out for engaging in extortion, his show’s abrupt cancellation was due to “financial reasons.”
You know who else isn’t buying what CBS is selling? Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who sees CBS’s behavior for what it is: media censorship
CBS is silencing Stephen Colbert, and, to echo Sen. Murphy, it’s “bone-chilling.” Our government is trying to control the media, and The Late Show’s cancellation is a huge win for the Trump administration: If Donald Trump doesn’t like what his critics are saying, first, he’ll sue them, and then, the critics will be shown the door.
The Wall Street Journal, a bastion of conservative journalism, is the latest outlet to stoke Trump’s ire: After publishing an article about a “bawdy” birthday letter Trump allegedly sent to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch.
(I can’t believe I’m about to say something positive about Rupert Murdoch, but there is NO WAY the King of Fox News will ever bend the knee to President Burger King.)
But it’s not just Colbert who is affected by Trump’s thin skin: The people who will suffer the most from this corporate decision are Colbert’s staff of 200 — they’re going to be out of a job come Summer 2026.
In case it wasn’t already obvious, I’m a big Stephen Colbert fan.
I’ve followed his career since the late Nineties, where — and I don’t think most people know this — he started on The Daily Show two years before Jon Stewart took over as host. His “Even Stevphen” bits with Steve Carell on The Daily Show and the entire episode of The Colbert Report featuring Canadian prog-rock legends Rush are comedic gold.
Sorry, the Rush-Colbert Report episode doesn’t exist on YouTube — but I can assure you it doesn’t only exist in my mind, either.
My favorite Colbert memory, however, is from a 2015 World AIDS Day event at Carnegie Hall, which I covered for The Wall Street Journal (unfortunately, my article is behind a paywall). At the time, Colbert had just taken over hosting The Late Show from David Letterman, and the show was suffering from growing pains. Colbert hadn’t found his groove yet, and I was afraid the show wouldn’t last through 2016.
I never should've doubted the man who always put the Colbert Nation first — even when he was still adjusting to just playing himself, and not an ultra-conservative blowhard.
Comedian Trevor Noah — the newly anointed host of The Daily Show — was technically the host of this World AIDS Day event. But he was clearly experiencing some hosting nerves of his own that night. Honestly, I don’t remember anything about his performance.
That’s because Colbert somehow ended up onstage in an emcee capacity multiple times throughout the night. Unlike Noah, Colbert had no trouble commanding an audience, whether introducing then-Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden or keeping the show running smoothly in his sharp, yet affable manner. I don’t know if Colbert was officially brought in to pinch-hit for Noah or not, but one thing I do remember is that he was much more comfortable playing to this A-lister crowd than Noah was at the outset.
So, as a fan, I have a request for Colbert:
Hey Stephen,
Thanks so much for doing your staff — and your devoted audience — a solid by agreeing to stick around for the next 10 months.
We have come to rely on you for your unfettered criticism of Donald Trump and his corrupt administration, so consider CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show as permission to go scorched earth. I know you’re not a journalist, but this is your chance to channel CBS truth-telling icons Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Dan Rather while keeping the paychecks flowing for your staff.
I mean, what’s CBS going to do? Fire you?
You’d be following in the footsteps of another late-night legend, Conan O’Brien, who, after getting screwed out of his Tonight Show gig back in 2010, spent his final shows telling his corporate overlords at NBC to fuck off.
Look, Stephen, you’re losing your job because people like Trump and the CBS suits are scared. They’re terrified because you spoke truth to power. But we, the Colbert Nation (aka the American people), are so grateful that you did.
Please don’t ever stop telling the truth, whether it’s on CBS or the streaming service/pay cable network/online platform where I know you’ll eventually land.
Thanks,
—Sarene
As I said, Stephen Colbert is going to be fine. He's a wealthy, successful man who will have no shortage of offers and opportunities for his next act. But what happened here is all part of a much bigger problem: Canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert brings us one step closer to state-run media. Who’s the next late-night truth teller to get the axe? Will it be Jon Stewart and The Daily Show? Jimmy Kimmel? Seth Meyers?
(Notice I’m not including Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show in this list because Fallon has always kissed Trump’s ass. Cowards gonna coward.)
Call to action: If you’re a Paramount+ subscriber, hit the company where it hurts by canceling your subscription.
As always, I thank you for reading,
—Sarene
P.S. If you’re a regular reader of my work and wish to support my endeavors, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Or, you can give a one-time donation by buying me a coffee.