CBS honcho breaks silence on Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' cancellation

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The CBS television chief broke his public silence about the decision to cancel "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," echoing company talking points Thursday that the program will be shuttered for purely economic reasons.

Paramount Chair of TV Media George Cheeks spoke about canceling Colbert’s show during a press conference following the close of a long-planned merger that put CBS’ parent company under new ownership. Cheeks, one of the few executives from the previous regime to stick around after the Skydance Media merger, oversaw all of CBS when the decision was made to cancel the program. 

"We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show. Unfortunately, the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going," Cheeks told reporters in his first public remarks about Colbert since it was revealed the program would end in May 2026 and the "Late Night" brand would be retired.  

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"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will end in May 2026. (Screenshot/Colbert)

"The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline," Cheeks continued. 

CBS said it was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night" when announcing the surprising plans last month.  

"The Late Show," which Colbert took over from David Letterman in 2015, famously leaned into liberal politics in the Trump era and became a major platform for Democratic politicians.

Colbert had been outspoken with his criticism of Paramount settling President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the company over CBS' handling of the "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the run-up to the election. Paramount settled the lawsuit last month, and the FCC approved the long-planned, $8 billion merger with Skydance shortly after. 

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Paramount Chair of TV Media George Cheeks. (Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

Many have questioned the decision, suggesting that it was done to appease Trump and the FCC, but everyone involved has pointed directly to the show’s bottom line from the start. 

"It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount," the network said when first announcing the "Late Show" would be canceled. 

Puck News' Matt Belloni reported that the late-night show "has been losing more than $40 million a year" for CBS and that it had a budget of "more than $100 million per season."

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When breaking his public silence, Cheeks did not confirm the exact amount but acknowledged the "Late Show" was losing significant cash. 

"At the end of the day, it just wasn’t sustainable to continue," he said. 

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Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.