CBS announced Thursday that it will air its final season of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year, and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough finds the timing to be especially curious.
Though the economics of late-night talk shows are “making less and less sense” for TV networks, the timing of Colbert’s cancellation is “very bad,” Scarborough said on Friday.
The “Morning Joe” co-host pointed to the recent settlement CBS’ parent company, Paramount, agreed to with Donald Trump in a lawsuit he filed over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with then-Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Colbert had denounced the settlement on his show, calling it a “big fat bribe” as Paramount seeks to merge with Skydance — a move that requires Trump administration approval.
“It’s terrible because you had the settlement with Donald Trump and then you had Colbert and Jon Stewart criticizing that decision, and then a week later, they’re saying, ‘Oh, unfortunately, we don’t have the money to continue this,’” Scarborough said on Friday’s episode of “Morning Joe.”
“You can make that economic argument, but that economic argument should have been made weeks before this or should have been made a couple months down the road,” he continued. “This just makes it look completely connected with the ‘60 Minutes’ settlement.”
In a statement Thursday, top Paramount and CBS executives said the cancellation “is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Still, many of Colbert’s supporters were skeptical, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery,” she wrote on social media. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
On Friday morning, Trump expressed glee on Truth Social over the “Late Show” cancellation. “I absolutely love that Colbert’ [sic] got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which premiered 10 years ago, is the most watched show in late-night television.
You can watch Scarborough’s remarks about the cancellation in the clip at the top of the page.