{"id":273162,"date":"2025-07-18T22:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273162\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T22:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T22:30:11","slug":"democrats-condemn-cbs-for-axing-colbert-show-people-deserve-to-know-if-this-is-politically-motivated-stephen-colbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/273162\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats condemn CBS for axing Colbert show: \u2018People deserve to know if this is politically motivated\u2019 | Stephen Colbert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrats are condemning CBS for its recent decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a>, noting the news comes just a few days after<\/a> its host criticized the network\u2019s parent company, Paramount, for settling a $16m lawsuit with Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who appeared as a guest on Colbert\u2019s show on Thursday night, later wrote on social media: \u201cIf Paramount and CBS<\/a> ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early July, Paramount settled a \u201cfrivolous\u201d lawsuit with Trump over the president\u2019s claim that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount is also seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4bn merger with Skydance Media. On Monday, Colbert called the settlement \u201ca big fat bribe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s firing would not be the first potentially spurred by a dispute with the president. In February, after MSNBC fired host Joy Reid, Trump celebrated her show\u2019s cancellation. Reid, a Black woman, had been a vocal critic of Trump and spoke frankly about the Black Lives Matter movement and war in Gaza. And in December, ABC News agreed to settle<\/a> a defamation lawsuit Trump filed against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos with a $15m payment to a Trump foundation and museum, as well as paying $1m in the president\u2019s legal fees.<\/p>\n

The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called for an investigation into Paramount\u2019s relationship with Trump<\/a> over the Skydance merger, wrote: \u201cCBS canceled Colbert\u2019s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skydance is owned by David Ellison, the son of a close Trump ally, Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n

Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington also posted on social media, writing: \u201cPeople deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernie Sanders, the independent Vermont senator, echoed similar concerns. \u201cCBS\u2019s billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance,\u201d he wrote. \u201cStephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he\u2019s fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS announced it would retire the Late Show after Colbert\u2019s contract ends in May, cutting short a 33-year run that began when David Letterman launched the show in 1993. The show received an Emmy nomination earlier in the week for talk series.<\/p>\n

A number of celebrities also voiced<\/a> their frustration with the cancellation, including concerns that it may have been politically motivated. In a social media post the actor John Cusack wrote: \u201cHe\u2019s not groveling enough to American fascism \u2013 Larry Ellison needs his tax cuts \u2013 doesn\u2019t need comedians reminding people they are not cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Paramount and CBS executives wrote that the cancellation was \u201cpurely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said they considered \u201cStephen Colbert irreplaceable\u201d and that the show\u2019s cancellation \u201cis not related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount\u201d.<\/p>\n

Writing on his own social media platform, Trump celebrated the show\u2019s cancellation: \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has called for the network to fire Colbert since September 2024, when the host called the president \u201cboring\u201d during an interview with PBS NewsHour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrats are condemning CBS for its recent decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, noting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-273162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114876607604791715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}