Stephen Colbert had a succinct message to President Trump, one that involved an anatomical impossibility.
In his monologue opening Monday’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Colbert referred to Trump’s celebrating CBS‘s sudden decision to axe the show. The U.S. president, in a post on Truth Social last Friday, wrote, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
With mock outrage, Colbert said, “How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?”
Colbert then appeared in an on-screen frame that said “Eloquence Cam” and, staring directly into the camera, affected a clipped New York accent: “Go fuck yourself.” (The f-bomb was bleeped out.) The line drew a massive roar of approval from the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theater, followed by cheers of “Stephen! Stephen! Stephen!”
In the monologue, Colbert noted that Trump also said in his online post, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next” to be fired. To which Colbert said, “Nope, no, no. Absolutely not. Kimmel, I am the martyr. There’s only room for one on this cross. And the view is fantastic from up here. I can see your house!”
“Folks, I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far,” Colbert quipped at the start of the show. “Over the weekend, it sunk in that they’re killing off our show. But they made one mistake: They left me alive,” he said. “And now,” Colbert said, “for the next 10 months, the gloves are off. I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump, starting right now” — and he then offered this comically milquetoast critique of Trump: “I don’t care for him. Doesn’t have the skillset to be president. Not a good fit, that’s all.”
Colbert reiterated his praise for CBS, saying they have “always been great partners.” But he also asked rhetorically, “how could it be purely be a financial decision if ‘The Late Show’ is No. 1 in ratings?”
Colbert said “somebody at CBS” followed up their “gracious press release” announcing “The Late Show” cancellation with a “gracious anonymous leak” to the New York Post, which reported that the program loses $40 million-$50 million per year. Said Colbert, “I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million — oh, yeah.” Earlier this month, CBS parent Paramount Global said it will pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit alleging a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris was deceptively edited.
“The Late Show” posted a preview of Colbert’s June 21 monologue on Instagram ahead of the program’s broadcast on CBS with the caption: “Sticks and stones may break our bones but presidential turds can never hurt us.”
Prior to Monday’s taping, a crowd of about 100 protestors gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in midtown Manhattan shouting, “Trump must go, Colbert must stay,” according to a post on X by James Martin, editor at large for America Magazine. That was in addition to several hundred more waiting to get in to see the show.
Colbert had announced the show’s termination to the “Late Show” audience during the taping on Thursday, July 17, and that video was shared online. Colbert said he had found out about the decision on Wednesday night. He expressed gratitude to fans, his staff and CBS execs (saying “the folks at CBS have been great partners”) but also regret that the network was exiting late night: “[I]t is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it.”
Colbert’s guests Monday were actors Sandra Oh (whose credits include “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Killing Eve”) and Dave Franco (“Together,” “Now You See Me,” “The Disaster Artist”).
When Oh came on stage, she said to Colbert, “Can I just start by saying something that I feel like probably everyone here and what everyone outside who’s so supportive wants to say, which is that, I’m so sorry, and saddened, and properly outraged for the cancellation of late night here.”
Oh took Colbert’s hand and said: “To CBS and Paramount: a plague on both of your houses.” She added, “And also a pox on all those that they serve.” Oh will appear this summer as Olivia in Shakespeare in the Park’s production of “Twelfth Night” in Manhattan’s Central Park.
CBS, in announcing the cancellation of “The Late Show,” said it was “purely a financial decision,” and the show’s axing follows years-long slide in the economics of late-night TV. The next season will be the 11th and final season of Colbert’s show on the network, ending its run in May 2026.
But the news also came two weeks after the Paramount-Trump settlement. On July 14, Colbert had said on his show that the settlement by CBS’s parent company was “a big, fat bribe,” alleging that Paramount made the payment because the company is seeking to secure the Trump administration’s approval to merge with Skydance Media.
The optics of the timing definitely looked bad. But as Variety has reported, CBS really had to announce the “Late Show” cancellation when it did because late-night writers and producers typically sign one-year deals that run from one August to the next. Given that the contracts for “Late Show” staffers re-signing for the 2025-26 TV season are ending in May 2026, CBS execs knew that news of the decision to end Colbert’s show after one more season would get out anyway.
Nevertheless, critics of Trump including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, suggested that CBS’s cancelation of Colbert’s show were related to the Paramount settlement with the president. Warren has previously characterized the Paramount/CBS settlement as “bribery.” “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons,” Warren said in a July 17 statement. On Friday, the Writers Guild of America called for the New York State attorney general to investigate the circumstances around “The Late Show” cancellation, with the union saying it had “significant concerns that The Late Show’s cancelation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval.”
On Monday, Warren and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden sent a letter to Skydance CEO David Ellison, asking whether Skydance and Trump had a “secret side deal” apart from the Paramount settlement. Trump has claimed the settlement is actually worth as much as $35 million when factoring in “advertising.” In the letter, the senators also asked Ellison whether he “or other Skydance executives” were “involved in discussions about canceling ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.’” According to CBS, Skydance played no part in the decision to cancel the late-night show. (Skydance declined to comment.)
Colbert, in the July 17 video, told the audience, “Before we start the show, I want to let you know something that I found out just last night. Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending ‘The Late Show’ in May.”
After the audience reacted with cries of dismay and boos, Colbert continued: “Yeah, I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. And I do want to say, I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. 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 in here, out there, all around the world, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea,” Colbert said. “I’m grateful to share the stage with this band, these artists over here every night. And I am extraordinarily, deeply grateful to the 200 people who work here. We get to do this show for each other every day, all day. And I’ve had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years. And let me tell you, it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it. And it’s a job that I’m looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months. It’s going to be fun.”
