CBS said it is canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” at the end of the upcoming television season in May, a casualty of industry changes that have dealt a crippling blow to advertising revenue.
Colbert announced the news to his audience Thursday during a show taping in New York. In a clip posted to Instagram, crowd members gasped, then started booing. Colbert said he only learned of the move on Wednesday.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of the late show on CBS,” Colbert said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
Colbert has hosted the show for a decade. After a rocky start, Colbert found his sea legs and eclipsed longtime late night leader NBC with his signature humor and sharp takes on political and cultural hot buttons. Colbert has long been a star within CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, rising to fame on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
The decision to end a franchise that has helped shaped pop culture was stunning to some. CBS launched its late night block in 1993 with David Letterman.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks and other top executives said in a joint statement. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
David Ellison’s Skydance Media is waiting for federal approval to buy Paramount, an $8 billion deal that is expected to usher in a new wave of cost-cutting.
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable,” said Cheeks, along with CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf. “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.”
More than 200 people work on Colbert’s show and their fate, beyond next spring, is unclear.
“I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,” Colbert said. “I’m so grateful to the Tiffany network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course, I’m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night.”
This is a developing story.