Stephen Colbert returned to his first full program after last week announcement Let CBS cancel his “late program” with end -of -evening guests, a joke about the cancellation of culture and an extremely sharp remark against President Donald Trump.
“I will go ahead and say it: to cancel the culture has gone too far,” Colbert told an exuberant audience who chanted his name strong.
This image published by CBS shows Stephen Colbert during a recording of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday July 21, 2025 in New York. (Scott Kowalchyk / CBS via AP)
CBS and Parent Paramount Global said that the decision to end the “late show” next May was purely financial. He did not go unnoticed – and was mentioned by Colbert on Monday evening – that the announcement came a few days after the comic strip brutally criticized The regulation of $ 16 million in paramount Trump’s trial on a “60 -minute” interview.
Colbert, known for his withdrawal of the acute comics from the Republican president, said that “During the weekend, he sank in that they killed our program. But they made a mistake. They left me alive. “
Now he said, “I can say what I really think of Donald Trump, starting now.” While his audience encouraged him, Colbert said: “I don’t care about him. It doesn’t seem to have the skills to be president.”
Colbert’s personal message to Trump
He read a Passage of a Trump message on social networks saying that he loved that the “non -talent” Colbert had been dismissed.
“How dare you, sir,” said Colbert. “Could a man without talent compose the following satirical spirit?” The show went to a close -up camera where Colbert seemed to say: “F – You”, the word broke out and his mouth was blurred.
Noting CBS’s explanation for his dismissal, Colbert said: “How can it be purely a financial decision if the show is 1 in the notes?” It’s confusing. Many people ask this question, mainly the parents and spouses of my staff. ”
With a certain apparent irritation, he said that news over the weekend reported the apparently disclosed information that the “late spectacle” lost between 40 million and 50 million dollars per year. Advertising income for entertainment programs at the end of the evening a highly narrowed While the public, especially young men, turns to streaming or other priorities.
“I could see us lose $ 24 million,” said Colbert. “But where Paramount would have ever spent the $ 16 million other? Oh, yes.”
Colbert presented the strange duo of “Weird Al” Yankovic and Lin-Manuel Miranda to sing “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay. In a Sneaky reference to the couple Taken the camera last week during a COLDPLAY concert, the “Late Show” cameras swept the audience to find support friends – the other end of evening animators Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart and John Oliver, as well as Adam Sandler, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.
Jon Stewart takes the cause of Colbert
On “The Daily Show” by Comedy Central, also owned by Paramount, Stewart delivered a passionate defense of his friend and former colleague and suggested that it was vain to try to satisfy Trump, certainly not by removing programs that have helped strengthen the value of the company over the years.
“Now is not the time to give in,” said Stewart. “I don’t give in. I’m not going anywhere. I think.”
In his own show, Colbert has become serious – briefly – to address the people who had expressed their support since the announcement.
“Some people see this show disappear as the sign of something really disastrous. And even if I am a big fan of me, I do not necessarily agree with this declaration,” he said, “because we here in the” late show “has never seen our work as changing something other than what you feel at the end of the day, which, I think, is a worthy objective.
“Or”, he continued, “changing what you feel the next morning when you watched on your phone, that’s why the television broadcast is dying.”
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David Bauder writes on the intersection of the media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him to http://x.com/dbauder And https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
