Stephen Colbert Is Leaving And Late Night May Not Come Back the Same

Stephen Colbert in 2019. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

On May 22, 2026, Stephen Colbert will walk off the Late Show set for the last time. Eleven years after taking over from David Letterman, one of American television’s most storied franchises will go dark – replaced, starting the following night, by a comedy roundtable sold to CBS through a time-buy arrangement.

The end of The Late Show is not a sudden event. CBS announced the cancellation in July 2025. But as the date approaches, the cultural weight of the moment is becoming harder to ignore. Network late-night comedy, a format that has shaped American public discourse for more than half a century, is contracting in ways that feel less like a transition and more like a conclusion.

The Numbers Behind the Decision

CBS has been explicit about the reason: money. The Late Show was losing an estimated $40 million per year, according to reporting by Puck News and Deadline. In a late-night advertising market in what CBS chair of TV media George Cheeks called “significant secular decline,” the math no longer worked.

“It just wasn’t sustainable to continue,” Cheeks said. “We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show, unfortunately the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going.” The network emphasized that the cancellation was unrelated to Colbert’s content or performance. CBS called it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

Colbert, whose manager reportedly learned of the final decision in late June before Colbert himself was told, chose to announce it publicly the following day – earlier than CBS had planned.

Trump’s Celebration, and What It Revealed

The cancellation did not happen in a political vacuum. Colbert had spent years in pointed opposition to the Trump administration, and the president responded to the news with characteristic directness, writing on Truth Social: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.”

The remark landed differently depending on where you stood. For supporters, it felt like accountability. For critics, it confirmed what they had suspected – that the cancellation of a prominent dissenting voice on network television carried political undertones regardless of what CBS’s balance sheet said. Paramount, CBS’s parent company, had recently settled a separate lawsuit with the Trump administration over a 60 Minutes interview involving Kamala Harris.

CBS has denied any connection between that settlement and Colbert’s departure. The optics, nonetheless, generated an enormous volume of public conversation.

What Replaces Him

Beginning May 22, the 11:35 p.m. slot will be taken by Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, a roundtable-style comedy talk show that has previously aired at 12:35 a.m. It is not produced by CBS – it is purchased through a time-buy agreement with Allen Media Group, meaning CBS pays nothing to produce it and collects a fee from Allen for the airtime.

Comedians including Sebastian Maniscalco, Tiffany Haddish, Gabriel Iglesias, Cedric the Entertainer, and Nate Bargatze have appeared on the program. It is a format that carries none of the production overhead, none of the creative ambition, and none of the cultural friction of what it replaces.

The Bigger Question

The Late Show’s cancellation is one data point in a longer trend. Traditional network late night – the monologue, the desk, the guests, the civic function of comedy as commentary – has been losing ground to streaming, social media, and audience fragmentation for years. Colbert outlasted nearly everyone in the format. Jimmy Kimmel continues at ABC. But the model that Carson built and Letterman refined is visibly shrinking.

For the generation that grew up watching Johnny Carson at 11:30 – the audience that now reads BoldFacts on Yahoo – the end of The Late Show is not simply a television story. It is a marker of how much the cultural landscape has shifted around them, and how quickly.

Colbert’s last show will air May 21. The next night, the slot will look very different. So will the conversation.

References: cbs late night plans the late show comics unleashed 1236782678 | 10 media moments controversies defined 2025