Stephen Colbert has found himself in a somewhat unique position, as he hosts a nightly television show that touches on current events, and the fact that The Late Show has been canceled is one of those current events. Colbert has made it clear the decision to leave isn’t one he agrees with, and now he’s resorted to (jokingly) kissing up to the boss to score some more time, maybe.
Yesterday was, it turns out, National Boss’s Day (I didn’t get my boss anything, but we’ll just overlook that). Colbert opened his monologue on The Late Show last night by referencing his own new boss, David Ellison, the CEO of the newly merged Paramount Skydance, and taking a moment to tell Ellison how he felt about him. Colbert said…
I want to take a moment to celebrate my new boss, Paramount CEO David Ellison. Mr. Ellison, I love you. That ought to buy us a couple more months.
There has, of course, been no extension of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which is set to go off the air in May. Paramount has claimed that the show isn’t making the money that it needs to make. Though many observers found the timing of the cancellation, coming just days after the host publicly criticized the settling of a lawsuit with President Donald Trump by Paramount-owned CBS, suspicious.
We can expect more than a few jokes at the expense of Colbert’s new boss during his remaining time on CBS. It’s not exactly uncommon for comedians to poke fun at the people in power. It’s part of the gig. John Oliver has famously taken shots at HBO and Warner Bros. as the host of Last Week Tonight.
But when Colbert does it now, there’s a bit of extra bite to the whole thing as it’s well understood that, whatever the reason for the show’s cancellation, the host isn’t happy about it. It will be interesting to see if Paramount’s CEO ever acknowledges the jibes. One hopes he doesn’t mind being Colbert’s target.
The entire late-night landscape has been in upheaval of late. Alongside the Colbert situation, we saw the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. It was unclear initially if he would be returning to his show, though he ended up only going off the air for a week. Kimmel himself has taken issue with the idea that Colbert’s show, or any late-night show, has been losing as much money as has been suggested.
It’s certainly true that late-night TV, like all TV, has been going through a lot of changes in the era of streaming. Even Colbert has joked he may end up on Netflix after his time on The Late Show is done, which certainly isn’t unlikely. However, for the time being, his show will air daily on the 2025 TV schedule and the first few months of 2026 on CBS.