Cbs Staffer Calls Stephen Colbert Cancellation A 'chilling Of Free Speech'

CBS staffers are questioning nan motives and timing down nan network's determination to cancel "The Late Show pinch Stephen Colbert."

The late-night scenery was rocked erstwhile CBS and big Stephen Colbert announced "The Late Show" was coming to an extremity successful May 2026, ending nan franchise aft much than 30 years connected nan air.

 "I americium having a difficult clip believing it," 1 CBS staffer told Fox News Digital. 

CBS CANCELS ‘THE LATE SHOW,’ STEPHEN COLBERT TO END PROGRAM IN MAY 2026

CBS' cancellation of "The Late Show pinch Stephen Colbert" has shocked nan media and governmental landscape.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images; Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)

CBS said successful a connection that it was "purely a financial determination against a challenging backdrop successful precocious night," but nan web insider wasn't buying it. 

"I’ve mislaid liking successful utmost POVs connected either end, but I spot this arsenic a chilling of free reside and nan timing seems to nonstop a beardown connection that this is origin and effect for what he said astir nan settlement," nan CBS staffer said. "The CBS activity could person cloaked it somehow, but made a determination not to." 

"This 1 action against Colbert will alteration aggregate peoples’ willingness to springiness their opinions aliases perspectives - that’s really I spot it," nan staffer added.

COLBERT'S ‘LATE SHOW’ WAS REPORTEDLY LOSING CBS $40M A YEAR AS CRITICS SPECULATE POLITICS DROVE CANCELLATION

Just days earlier nan announced cancellation, Colbert took purpose astatine his firm bosses astatine genitor institution Paramount Global for settling President Donald Trump's lawsuit.

"I judge this benignant of analyzable financial sentiment pinch a sitting authorities charismatic has a method sanction successful ineligible circles. "It’s a ‘big fat bribe,'" Colbert told his audience. "Because it each comes arsenic Paramount’s owners are trying to get nan Trump management to o.k. nan waste of our web to a caller owner, Skydance!"

There had been concerns wrong Paramount that not settling Trump's lawsuit would halt its Skydance merger, which needs nan support of nan FCC. The merger is expected to move guardant this year. 

One CBS staffer suspects Colbert's cancellation was tied to his harsh rebuke if his firm bosses astatine genitor institution Paramount Global complete its determination to settee President Donald Trump's lawsuit.  (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A 2nd CBS staffer told Fox News Digital "the timing is weird," suggesting it's tied pinch nan forthcoming merger but didn't norm retired nan financial reasoning nan web gave.  

"I mean pinch nan layoffs and everything that’s happened precocious thing surprises me," nan staffer said, later adding that nan "timing is decidedly sketchy though." 

Paramount did not instantly respond to Fox News Digital's petition for comment. 

While galore critics, including apical Democrats, person speculated nan late-night cancellation was a governmental one, 1 study shed ray connected nan financial struggles of "The Late Show."

SCHIFF, WARREN DEMAND TO KNOW IF CBS IS ENDING STEPHEN COLBERT'S ‘LATE SHOW’ FOR ‘POLITICAL REASONS’

Puck News' Matt Belloni reported nan late-night show has been losing "more than $40 cardinal a year" for CBS and that it had a fund of "more than $100 cardinal per season," contrasting it pinch network's daytime and primetime programming, which he noted were "still profitable."

"'Late Show,' pinch its topical joke and personage interviews pegged to circumstantial projects, has struggled connected Paramount+. And of nan 3 web late-night shows, ‘Late Show’ has by acold nan smallest integer footprint connected YouTube and different platforms," Belloni wrote. "So from a business perspective, nan cancellation makes sense."

"The Late Show" reportedly mislaid CBS $40 cardinal per twelvemonth and had a fund northbound of $100 cardinal per season. (Screenshot/CBS)

"Colbert gets nary advertizing and precocious nighttime is simply a reliable spot," 1 personification pinch knowledge of CBS' determination told FOX Business' Charles Gasparino.

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Belloni said nan sources he said pinch astatine CBS and Skydance Media, nan institution that is group to bargain nan network's genitor institution Paramount Global arsenic portion of an $8 cardinal merger, insist Colbert's cancellation was "based connected economics, not politics," pointing to nan determination to springiness his show a 10-month hold alternatively of pulling nan plug instantly arsenic evidence.

"Still, 2 different group pinch heavy ties to CBS and Late Show fishy otherwise," Belloni said. "After all, erstwhile a web decides that a show is excessively expensive, executives typically spell to nan cardinal talent and inquire them to return salary cuts, occurrence people, aliases different slash costs. That didn’t hap here—though pinch Colbert said to beryllium making betwixt $15 cardinal and $20 cardinal per year, a salary trim wouldn’t person solved nan problem connected its own."