As the final curtain falls on "The Late Show," a brief history of the evolution of the late-night tradition and Stephen Colbert's satire.
According to CBS, the cancellation was "purely a financial decision." Even though Colbert recognizes that the economic collapse of traditional broadcast TV models may have contributed to the decision, "there are many people who believe there was another reason," the talk show host noted in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Indeed, the announcement came just days after CBS and Paramount agreed to pay $16 million (€13.6 million) to resolve a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump — a settlement Colbert had described in his show as "a big fat bribe." The settlement and the decision to cancel "The Late Show" also coincided with plans by Paramount — the owner of CBS — to take over movie studio Skydance. The multibillion-dollar merger required the US government's approval.
Colbert, who has been hosting CBS' flagship late-night show for the past 11 years, is a renowned critic of Donald Trump, and the US president openly celebrated the comedian's cancellation: "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired," the president wrote in a Truth Social post. "His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. He has even less talent than Colbert!" "The Late Show" was the most-watched late-night program, averaging more than 2.7 million viewers in 2026; another 10 million people are subscribed to Colbert's YouTube channel.
As the iconic host of NBC's "The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992, Johnny Carson turned the format into a cultural institution. His witty opening monologues became one of the staples of modern talk shows.
Colbert's predecessor on CBS, David Letterman, was another key figure in modernizing the format; he notably added irreverence to his show — and his sarcastic style went on to influence an entire generation of talk show hosts, including Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
As the author of books including "Colbert's America: Satire and Democracy" and "America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy," McClennen has been analyzing Colbert's work long before he became the host of the "Late Show" in 2015.
In "The Colbert Report," the comedian played a satirical version of a conservative cable-news pundit. His show revolved around mocking political media, ideology and public hypocrisy.
Because he was performing as an alter-ego, some people didn't understand this "highly sophisticated form of satire," explains McClennen, but she also notes that despite the irony and ambiguity of his persona, he was already teaching his audiences to be distrustful of power.
An authoritarian's playbook: Silencing dissent When he became the host of "The Late Show,” Colbert dropped his faux-conservative satirical character, but despite the change, his comedy remained deeply political.
The cancellation of "The Late show with Stephen Colbert" is not just about the career of one late-night host and his team. It can be seen as part of a broader trend to silence critics, used by authoritarian regimes to dismantle democratic institutions .
In a letter sent to Disney on May 11, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez revealed that there is currently a "coordinated campaign of censorship and control, carried out through the weaponization of the FCC's authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission." 'Comedy doesn't die' Despite this alarming trend, McClennen remains optimistic for the future of political satire.
"Stephen Colbert will not be host of 'The Late Show' anymore after May 21. But will this mean the end of political satire? Will this mean the end of humor that's critical of the government? Absolutely no way," she says. "The human condition is to use political comedy to make sense of absurd political situations." The professor is currently analyzing satire news shows produced since the 1990s, "from every continent, from Nigeria, from Taiwan, from Mexico..." And that research has led her to one conclusion: "Any time there are efforts to censor satire, it comes back fighting. The comedy doesn't die. It comes back stronger." Edited by: Sarah Hucal
