The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert tempted fate when he called Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump a “big fat bribe” earlier this week. Three days later, CBS announced it would end his show after the upcoming 2025-2026 season.

Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' cancellation shows how his fake Republican and Never Trump persona became irrelevant as the political landscape shifted under Trump

Donald Trump is already lying about why CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was canceled. “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning.

Fox News host Howard Kurtz isn’t buying that CBS axed Stephen Colbert solely for financial reasons. Kurtz called out CBS’ parent company Paramount on Media Buzz Sunday, accusing it of cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in order to gain President Donald Trump’s approval.

The president also took aim at ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, while praising Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld, whose talk show “Gutfeld!” airs an hour earlier than the major late-night shows.

CBS’ decision to cut ties with Stephen Colbert and its decades-old “Late Show” franchise come next May will leave a major hole in the format — but one that has been widening. TV networks have been cutting costs at their late-night mainstays for the past few years.

The Late Show is the first of the three major late-night talk shows to call it quits. It won’t be the last.