Colbert Accuses CBS of Bending to Trump in Final Interview After Show Cancellation

Late-night host Stephen Colbert accused CBS of bending the knee to President Donald Trump like royal subjects in an interview published Wednesday.

Colbert has discussed his show's cancellation in multiple interviews, most recently with The Hollywood Reporter in a piece headlined, "The Stephen Colbert Exit Interview: ‘I Did Not Expect It to End This Way.’"

CBS announced in July that it had canceled "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," set to end in May 2026. Liberal critics have accused CBS and Paramount of ending the show to appease Trump and secure approval for a planned merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.

In the 10 months since, Colbert has regularly jabbed his network, its new owners' relationship with the president, and reports that his show lost $40 million a year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Being brutally honest about it was part of an arrangement he made with his bosses last summer. He has also continued to critique Trump nightly.

Colbert hinted there is no definitive proof his show was canceled for political reasons but said it is the most likely explanation. He acknowledged trouble in the traditional broadcast model amid a changing media environment but added, "There are many people who believe there was another reason. And, as I said in the most measured tones I could muster, there is a reason why people believe that."

He pointed to the network's $16 million check to the Trump administration. "Me being canceled reinforced a narrative that CBS already had a nimbus of knee-bending that they had created around themselves, because even their lawyers said there was no reason to cut the check, and then they did and gave no rationale for why they changed their minds. And then, suddenly, they got their broadcast license," Colbert said.

"Causality is not the same thing as correlation, and I understand that," Colbert said. He mocked past skepticism about tobacco's health effects and joked, "It can be that the broadcast model is collapsing, and, while we’re at it, as long as we’re collapsing here, what if we shove this one out a window first? I mean, this lamb’s got a very cuttable throat."

Colbert criticized being labeled a liberal partisan despite supporting Democrats and mocking Republicans. "But, yeah, I’m a moderate, suburban Catholic, but people perceive me as this liberal thing when, in fact, what presents itself as modern conservatism [today] is actually radical behavior," he said.

"I believe that what purports to be the present conservative movement is actually engaged in constant heresy against reality. Just wish-casting a world to exist that doesn’t, which is very destructive," he argued. "That’s like alcoholism. That’s reaching for a drug that’s really a poison all the time in order to give you the worldview that you hope. And then, worse than that, imposing that on other people and denying their reality."

Fox News Digital reached out to CBS and Paramount for comment but did not immediately receive a response.