Lawmakers question if CBS canceled Colbert’s show for political reasons

Democratic lawmakers are questioning the timing of CBS’s announcement to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which came days after Colbert criticized the network’s parent company for paying President Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit.

Hours after CBS executives characterized the move as “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” lawmakers began suggesting that the cancellation was linked to Paramount’s recent settlement with Trump. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote on social media that the settlement with Trump “looks like bribery,” and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said, “People deserve to know if this is a politically motivated attack on free speech.”

“The Late Show” was racking up losses of tens of millions of dollars a year, and the gap was growing fast, The New York Times reported.

Paramount recently agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” Colbert, a longtime critic of Trump’s, panned Monday night’s settlement as a “big fat bribe,” a reference to Paramount’s multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance that still requires approval from the Trump administration.

CBS executives said in a statement Thursday night that the decision was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” The show’s cancellation comes during a period of upheaval in the world of late-night television, as viewers migrate away from traditional broadcast and cable television and as advertising revenue for late-night programs plummets. Colbert’s show will end in May, when his contract expires.

Still, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, also cited the pending merger in a social media post Friday morning.

“Stephen Colbert, an extraordinary talent and the most popular late night host, slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired,” Sanders said. “Do I think this is a coincidence? NO.”

Colbert said during Thursday’s taping of the show that he was informed of the cancellation Wednesday night. For his part, Colbert had joked Monday that his mustache would protect him from any pressure that comes from “the new owner’s desire to please Trump,” asking, “How are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert if they can’t find him?”

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who was a guest on Colbert’s show Thursday night, demanded more answers as to whether the show was canceled for political reasons.

“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know,” Schiff wrote on X.

Trump, meanwhile, celebrated the decision to cancel the show.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump said in his own social media post. “His talent was even less than his ratings.”