{"id":283414,"date":"2025-07-22T20:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/283414\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T20:35:12","slug":"stephen-colbert-declares-gloves-are-off-as-cancelled-late-show-host-takes-aim-at-trump-stephen-colbert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/283414\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert declares \u2018gloves are off\u2019 as cancelled Late Show host takes aim at Trump | Stephen Colbert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Colbert<\/a> declared to Donald Trump<\/a> that \u201cthe gloves are off\u201d in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm, as his fellow hosts lined up to defend him with Jon Stewart<\/a> scathingly denouncing Paramount for trying to \u201ccensor and control\u201d its hosts.<\/p>\n

Colbert, the top-rated late-night talk show host in the US, said last week on his CBS show Late Night \u2013 which he took over from David Letterman in 2015 \u2013 that Paramount\u2019s decision to pay a $16m settlement to Trump over another flagship CBS show, 60 Minutes, amounted to a \u201cbig fat bribe\u201d. CBS is part of Paramount, which needs the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission to approve its $8bn sale to Skydance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paramount pulled the plug three days later, with Trump revelling in the firing of one of his most prolific detractors, posting on his Truth Social platform: \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert was fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert came out swinging<\/a> on Monday, telling Trump to \u201cgo fuck yourself\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He joked that it had always been his dream to have a sitting president celebrate the end of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pointing out that last Monday, just two days before my cancellation, I delivered a blistering monologue in which I showed the courage to have a moustache,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, obviously, CBS<\/a> saw my upper lip and boom, cancelled. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. This is worse than fascism. This is stachism.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an anonymous leak over the weekend, CBS had appeared to suggest the Late Show lost $40m-$50m last year. Colbert joked that he could account for losing $24m annually. \u201cWhere would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16m?\u201d he joked. \u201cOh yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a gesture of solidarity, Colbert\u2019s fellow late-night show hosts \u2013 Last Week Tonight\u2019s John Oliver, Late Night\u2019s Seth Meyers and The Daily Show\u2019s Jon Stewart \u2013 all showed up for a joke in Monday night\u2019s episode<\/a>. They were joined by other entertainers and journalists including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Weird Al Yankovic, Andy Cohen, Anderson Cooper, Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Stewart, who gave Colbert his late-night start in the 1990s, issued a blistering attack of his own. On Monday\u2019s episode of The Daily Show \u2013 which is also part of Paramount \u2013 Stewart lambasted its decision to cancel Colbert\u2019s show.<\/p>\n

Anti-Trump protesters gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, home of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that CBS didn\u2019t try to save their No 1 rated late-night franchise that\u2019s been on the air for over three decades is part of what\u2019s making everybody wonder,\u201d Stewart said on his Comedy<\/a> Central program. \u201cWas this purely financial, or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8bn merger?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf you believe \u2013 as corporations or as networks \u2013 that you can make yourselves so innocuous that you can serve a gruel so flavourless that you will never again be on the boy king\u2019s radar \u2026 Why would anyone watch you? And you are fucking wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart then led a choir and the audience in a chant of \u201cgo fuck yourselves\u201d, directed at corporations who bent the knee to Trump.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Over on The Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon noted that viewers were planning to boycott the network over the decision. \u201cCBS could lose millions of viewers, plus tens of hundreds watching on Paramount+,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

On air, Colbert was visibly moved after his guest, the actor Sandra Oh, proclaimed a \u201cplague on CBS and Paramount,\u201d paying tribute to his work speaking truth to power while staying funny.<\/p>\n

Skipping a promised question-and-answer session after the taping of Monday\u2019s show, Colbert told his studio audience, \u201cI was nervous coming out here,\u201d and added: \u201cI will miss you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the headquarters of The Late Show, which is taped at midtown Manhattan\u2019s Ed Sullivan Theater, protesters held placards that said: \u201cColbert Stays! Trump Must Go!\u201d<\/p>\n

Audience member Elizabeth Kott, a 48-year-old high school teacher, called Colbert\u2019s firing \u201cterrible\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really awful that it\u2019s come to that in this country, where companies feel the need to obey in advance. It\u2019s really awful,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that \u201cthe gloves are off\u201d in his first broadcast since his Late…\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-283414","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\/114898804804277193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283414","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=283414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283414\/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=283414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}