{"id":93909,"date":"2025-07-26T11:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T11:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/93909\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T11:02:10","slug":"david-letterman-hurls-fiery-rant-at-gutless-cbs-over-stephen-colberts-late-show-cancellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/93909\/","title":{"rendered":"David Letterman hurls fiery rant at ‘gutless’ CBS over Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ cancellation"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Letterman delivered a fiery rant against CBS and parent company Paramount for cancelling Stephen Colbert\u2019s \u201cLate Show,\u201d<\/a> calling the decision \u201cgutless\u201d and \u201cpure cowardice\u201d as he labeled his successor a martyr of the network.<\/p>\n

Letterman, who hosted CBS\u2019s late-night talk show for 22 years, passionately defended Colbert during his conversation with former \u201cLate Show\u201d producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay on Friday \u2014 just over a week since the show was axed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they killed the franchise and told Stephen to go,\u201d Letterman said in a video posted <\/a>to his YouTube channel. \u201cNow, for Stephen, I love this. He is a martyr. Good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Letterman speaks out against CBS canceling the \u201cLate Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d on July 25, 2025. Letterman\/YouTube<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old comedian says Colbert had immortalized himself as the face of the network since he took over the iconic talk show in September 2015.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c10 years ago, I quit and left,\u201d Letterman said. \u201cThen Stephen Colbert\u00a0comes along, and pretty quickly established himself as a precise, crisp, witty political satirist, and often his target has been the current administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on that and just the overall entertainment quota of the show, drew a great audience and people became not addicted to but always looking forward to political satire from Stephen Colbert, he was very good at it. For 10 years, I think became the face of the network.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 17, CBS announced that it would cancel Colbert\u2019s show in 2026 due to financial reasons.<\/a><\/p>\n

The show was losing between $40 million and $50\u2009million a year, The Post learned.<\/a><\/p>\n

Letterman speaks with his former \u201cLate Night\u201d staffers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay during a conversation posted to YouTube. Letterman\/YouTube<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert sits at his desk during a shooting of \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d inside the Ed Sullivan Theater on June 25, 2025. Scott Kowalchyk\/CBS<\/p>\n

Letterman didn\u2019t believe the financial hardship claims<\/a> were the reason for the cancellation, instead blaming the company executives who feared Paramount\u2019s sale to Skydance wouldn\u2019t go through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they were losing this kind of money, you\u2019re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday. Yeah right,\u201d he said. \u201cI bet they were losing this kind of money six weeks ago, or they have never been losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comedian called out the network\u2019s news branch, saying CBS News doesn\u2019t make money for the company and is still around.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake a look at CBS News, it\u2019s still in business and I\u2019m not certain that that\u2019s a profit center,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan where \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d is recorded on July 22, 2025. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Paramount and CBS News signs at the Paramount offices on Broadway in Manhattan, NY on June 13, 2025. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the idea that they\u2019re hiding behind money and they\u2019re giving him another 10 months. That\u2019s a huge chunk of money they\u2019re gonna lose,\u201d Letterman said.<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s cancellation came as CBS-Paramount Holdings finalized the sale of the network to Skydance<\/a> Media for $8.4 billion on July 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe f\u2013k is Skydance? Honest to Christ. Is it a discount airline?\u201d Letterman joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert during his opening monologue for his \u201cLate Show\u201d on July 21, 2025. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/p>\n

The purported $8.4 billion sale comes in light of CBS settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump after the commander in chief accused CBS News\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d of deceptively editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the weeks leading up to the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

Letterman called the settlement \u201cpure cowardice\u201d as the lawsuit targeted the network\u2019s \u201cpinnacle of journalistic integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert, 61, has also called himself a \u201cmartyr\u201d <\/a>as he blamed his show\u2019s demise on Trump, telling the commander in chief to \u201cgo f\u2013k yourself\u201d in his opening monologue on July 21.<\/p>\n

Letterman wished the cancellation had happened on his watch as he now has to kiss \u201cColbert\u2019s ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comedian had already commented<\/a> on the shock ending to the long-time show.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t spell CBS without BS,\u201d Letterman captioned\u00a0a YouTube video<\/a> of his old jokes against the Turner network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Letterman delivered a fiery rant against CBS and parent company Paramount for cancelling Stephen Colbert\u2019s \u201cLate Show,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":93910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[15328,47407,171,49809,398,13895,16688,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-93909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-david-letterman","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","12":"tag-media","13":"tag-stephen-colbert","14":"tag-talk-shows","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114919201230820309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}