In 2005, on his satire “The Colbert Report,” Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness,” meaning a statement that was not actually true but represented a reality that the speaker wished to inhabit.
In 2015, Colbert replaced David Letterman on CBS’s “Late Show,” which under him became one of the biggest and most prolific launchers of satirically guided missiles during the Trump era. In 2024, President Trump — who has repeatedly bemoaned his late-night coverage — said CBS “should terminate his contract.”
Now, in 2025, CBS has said that it is canceling Colbert’s show at the end of its season, next May. Executives stressed, in the announcement, that the cut was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Is that the truth, or merely truthy?
There is good reason that CBS would need to offer that assurance. The network’s parent company, Paramount, just this month settled a lawsuit from President Trump, over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, for $16 million. At the same time, Paramount was hoping to close a multibillion-dollar merger with the company Skydance, which required the approval of the Trump administration.
Many legal experts said the deal was an unnecessary concession in a frivolous case. At minimum it undermined one of TV journalism’s most accomplished independent voices. Some people called it “a big, fat bribe” — actually, those were Colbert’s words, in a blistering monologue a few days ago, which also mentioned speculation that CBS’s future owners might try to rein him in.
Talk show hosts have bitten the hand that signs the contracts before; Letterman needled NBC and its then-parent, General Electric. But back then, the issues did not involve conflicts with a president willing to pull any necessary levers to punish and influence media outlets.
Now Paramount wants to assure us that the cancellation of one of the president’s most famous critics is totally and coincidentally business. And sure — it absolutely could be.
Is it possible that Paramount decided to get out of the late-night business strictly as business? Of course. Late-night TV’s ratings and ad revenue have been declining for years — though Colbert’s show has beaten its competition in most of its run.
Could the particular finances of “Late Show” be so dire, despite its ratings, that CBS can’t justify sustaining it? Maybe. The number of late-night shows has dwindled. CBS abandoned the traditional 12:30 a.m. talk format after James Corden left in 2023. In March it canceled the replacement, “After Midnight” with Taylor Tomlinson.
