YouTube
CBS has cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Colbert announced the news at the start of Thursday night’s episode of the chat show, telling the studio audience that: “Next year (2026)will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May.” Colbert added that he hadfound out the news 24 hours earlier. As the audience booed, he said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.”
A statement from CBS, signed by CBS president and CEO and Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks, followed. “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,” it begins. “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time.” The statement explains that the decision was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Though the network cited financial reasons for the decision, some have pointed to the highly politicised merger of Paramount, the parent company of Late Show network CBS, with Skydance as being a possible factor.
Colbert, like most of the late night hosts, is a critic of Trump and recently took aim at Paramount for settling a lawsuit with the President for $16m after he claimed that CBS News edited a pre-election interview Kamala Harris in a deceptive way. The settlement coincided with Paramount seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for the Skydance merger, with Colbert calling the move “a big fat bribe.”
Puck‘s Matthew Belloni, however, suggests that The Late Show was losing $40 million a year for the network. CBS previously distanced itself from the late night format when it axed The Late Late Show in 2023 after host James Corden stepped down.
Prior to Colbert, The Late Show was hosted by David Letterman from 1993 until 2015. Both eras of the show acted as a platform for musicians, both established and emerging, to perform live on TV.
The past 30 years of music on late night reflects that changing landscape for artists, with the Letterman era offering underground artists a rare chance at mainstream exposure. See a fresh-faced Sonic Youth performing “100%” in 1992 or Future Islands becoming one of the first bands to experience modern virality with their magnetic and intense performance of “Seasons (Waiting On You)” a decade ago.
During the Colbert era, late night spots have increasingly become fodder for YouTube and online discussion. Kendrick Lamar was able to tease the arrival of To Pimp A Butterfly by performing an untitled track back in 2015, while emerging superstars Doechii and Chappell Roan could hint at the full scale of their burgeoning stagecraft with elaborate live set-ups.
Below are five moments from the archives that will live long in the memory after The Late Show ends in 2026.
