The Late Show legend David Letterman <\/a>has slammed CBS\u2019s \u201cgutless\u201d axing of his successor, Stephen Colbert<\/a>, and the entire franchise.<\/p>\n Letterman, 78, hosted The Late Show from 1993 to 2015. He was replaced by Colbert, who has remained at the helm until recently, when the network announced last week that its popular late-night talk show would be ending in 2026<\/a>. The network cited costs for ending the show. <\/p>\n \u201c10 years ago, I quit and left, and then Stephen Colbert<\/a> comes along and pretty quickly established himself as a precise, crisp, witty political satirist. And often, his target has been the current administration,\u201d Letterman told former Late Show producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay in a recent YouTube video posted to his channel. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd based on that and just the overall entertainment quota of the show, it drew a great audience, and people … always [looked] forward to political satire from Stephen Colbert. [He] was very good at it for 10 years, and I think became the face of the network.\u201d <\/p>\n Letterman addressed how CBS and its parent company, Paramount, were up for sale. A merger with Skydance was announced last week.<\/a> Letterman surmised that Colbert’s firing was so the $8 billion merger would be approved by the Trump administration. Skydance is owned by David Ellison, the son of billionaire and Trump ally<\/a> Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n David Letterman (left) expressed support for Stephen Colbert (right), arguing he became ‘the face’ of CBS. Colbert and The Late Show were canceled by the network. (Letterman on YouTube\/Getty)<\/p>\n Letterman stated that Colbert, a noted Trump critic, was cut to appease the president. Trump also recently reached a $16 million settlement with Paramount<\/a> over allegations that its news program, 60 Minutes, deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 presidential rival, Kamala Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the CBS people say, \u2018Hey boys, here\u2019s what I\u2019m gonna do. Not only are we gonna get rid of that guy [Colbert], we\u2019re gonna get rid of the entire franchise so you don\u2019t have to worry about another guy,\u2019\u201d he quipped. <\/p>\n While CBS has maintained that Colbert\u2019s firing was a \u201cfinancial decision\u201d and \u201cnot related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,\u201d Letterman was skeptical.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they were losing this kind of money, you\u2019re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday? I bet they were losing this kind of money a month ago, or six weeks ago \u2014 or they have never been losing money,\u201d he suggested. <\/p>\n \u201cThey did not do the correct thing; they did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A defiant Colbert hosted \u2018The Late Show\u2019 on July 21 after its axing was announced. (The Late Show\/CBS)<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that they killed the franchise and told Stephen to go,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, for Stephen, I love this. He is a martyr. Good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman went on to celebrate Colbert\u2019s legacy, saying: \u201cIf you listen carefully, you can hear them unfolding chairs at the [TV] Hall of Fame for his induction.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they\u2019ve given [Colbert] another 10 months. Well, that\u2019s another huge chunk of money they\u2019re gonna lose, according to them,\u201d he added. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was money. I think it was all to make sure [David Ellison was] solid spending dad\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n Calling the situation \u201csad,\u201d he noted, adding that it indicated the downfall of the freedom of the press. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is pure cowardice,\u201d he said. \u201cI think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and \u2018handled\u2019 this are gonna be embarrassed because this is gutless.\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent has contacted CBS and Paramount for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-293790","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\/114920640142148793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293790","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=293790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/David-Letterman-and-Stephen-Colbert.png\")
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