Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a Wednesday opinion piece for Variety that comedian Stephen Colbert’s show may have been canceled by CBS “to curry favor” with President Trump.
CBS announced the cancelation on Friday, days after Colbert, a frequent critic of Trump, had criticized a merger between Skydance and Paramount, CBS’s parent company. The approval of federal regulatory agencies is necessary for the merger to go through.
While CBS said the cancelation was strictly a financial issue and there have been reports that Colbert’s show was losing money, a number of observers and Colbert himself have raised the possibility of politics.
“In the coming weeks, months, and years, all of us must show Trump that we see his march toward authoritarianism and we will not be silenced. Democrats need to embrace the fight against corruption as a top priority. Republicans need to grow a spine and get behind common-sense anti-corruption measures,” Warren said in her piece.
“All Americans need to speak up. Because yes, it’s a shame that CBS canceled ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ but it is a threat to all of us that the top late-night show in the country may have been canceled in order to curry favor with a wannabe king,” she added.
Colbert tore into his own network and its parent company, Paramount Global, due to a decision to end “The Late Show,” an action CBS said last week is financially required but is resulting in widespread criticism.
The late-night host accused his network of leaking financial figures to the press, alleging “The Late Show” was losing upward of $40 million each year as a reason for getting rid of the “Late Show” franchise. Colbert stated that $40 million “is a big number.”
“I could see us losing $24 million,” he added. “But where could Paramount possibly have spent the other $16 million … oh wait.”
Colbert was referencing a settlement Paramount agreed to pay Trump earlier this month to subdue a lawsuit the president filed targeting CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
“Instead of fighting Trump on his ‘meritless’ lawsuit, Paramount settled, handing $16 million to Trump’s presidential library. This looks like bribery in plain sight, and that’s exactly what Stephen Colbert said on his show: ‘[T]his kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s “big, fat bribe.”’ Warren said in her Variety article.
“Three days later, Paramount-owned CBS canceled Colbert’s show. And Trump didn’t waste a moment before celebrating the news,” she added.
The Hill has reached out to Paramount, CBS and the White House for comment.
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