CBS staffer calls Stephen Colbert cancellation a ‘chilling of free speech’

CBS staffers are questioning the motives and timing behind the network’s decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

The late-night landscape was rocked when CBS and host Stephen Colbert announced “The Late Show” was coming to an end in May 2026, ending the franchise after more than 30 years on the air.

 “I am having a hard time believing it,” one CBS staffer told Fox News Digital. 

CBS said in a statement that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” but the network insider wasn’t buying it. 

“I’ve lost interest in extreme POVs on either end, but I see this as a chilling of free speech and the timing seems to send a strong message that this is cause and effect for what he said about the settlement,” the CBS staffer said. “The CBS leadership could have cloaked it somehow, but made a decision not to.” 

“This one action against Colbert will change multiple peoples’ willingness to give their opinions or perspectives – that’s how I see it,” the staffer added.

Just days before the announced cancellation, Colbert took aim at his corporate bosses at parent company Paramount Global for settling President Donald Trump’s lawsuit.

“I believe this kind of complicated financial sentiment with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. “It’s a ‘big fat bribe,’” Colbert told his audience. “Because it all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance!”

There had been concerns within Paramount that not settling Trump’s lawsuit would halt its Skydance merger, which needs the approval of the FCC. The merger is expected to move forward this year. 

A second CBS staffer told Fox News Digital “the timing is weird,” suggesting it’s tied with the forthcoming merger but didn’t rule out the financial reasoning the network gave.  

“I mean with the layoffs and everything that’s happened recently nothing surprises me,” the staffer said, later adding that the “timing is definitely sketchy though.” 

Paramount did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

While many critics, including top Democrats, have speculated the late-night cancellation was a political one, one report shed light on the financial struggles of “The Late Show.”

Puck News’ Matt Belloni reported 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,” contrasting it with network’s daytime and primetime programming, which he noted were “still profitable.”

“‘Late Show,’ with its topical humor and celebrity interviews pegged to specific projects, has struggled on Paramount+. And of the three network late-night shows, ‘Late Show’ has by far the smallest digital footprint on YouTube and other platforms,” Belloni wrote. “So from a business perspective, the cancellation makes sense.”

“Colbert gets no advertising and late night is a tough spot,” one person with knowledge of CBS’ decision told FOX Business’ Charles Gasparino.

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Belloni said the sources he spoke with at CBS and Skydance Media, the company that is set to buy the network’s parent company Paramount Global as part of an $8 billion merger, insist Colbert’s cancellation was “based on economics, not politics,” pointing to the decision to give his show a 10-month extension instead of pulling the plug immediately as evidence.

“Still, two other people with deep ties to CBS and Late Show suspect otherwise,” Belloni said. “After all, when a network decides that a show is too expensive, executives typically go to the key talent and ask them to take pay cuts, fire people, or otherwise slash costs. That didn’t happen here—though with Colbert said to be making between $15 million and $20 million per year, a pay cut wouldn’t have solved the problem on its own.”