President Trump stated Friday morning that he was thrilled by the information that CBS is canceling the decade-running “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” the president wrote in a put up on Fact Social. “His talent was even less than his ratings.”
The president additionally took goal at ABC’s “Late Night” speak present host Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, whereas praising Fox Information’s Greg Gutfeld, whose speak present “Gutfeld!” airs an hour sooner than the key late-night reveals.
“I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!” Trump wrote. “Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
The corporate’s determination has raised eyebrows as a result of it got here simply days after Colbert publicly took CBS’s guardian firm Paramount International to process for settling a $16 million lawsuit with Trump.
The comic has helmed “The Late Show” since 2015, when he took over for veteran host David Letterman. This system is the most-watched speak present throughout the 11:35 p.m. timeslot, averaging practically 2.5 million viewers throughout the second quarter of this yr. Gutfeld, whose present airs an hour earlier and isn’t a direct competitor to CBS’s program, averaged roughly 3.3 million viewers per present throughout the identical timeframe.
The president had a pleasant relationship with conservative host Gutfeld for years.
CBS, in its announcement Thursday, known as the Colbert cancellation “purely a financial decision.”
“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” the community stated in an announcement. “Our admiration, affection and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult.”
Colbert mocked Paramount International in his monologue Monday over the CBS guardian firm’s payout to Trump in a dispute over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the 2024 presidential election. Paramount is looking for approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Fee (FCC) for its merger take care of leisure large Skydance, he famous.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s big fat bribe,” the comic quipped.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who’ve been friends on Colbert’s present, have been amongst Democrats calling for extra transparency on the choice.
“America deserves to know if his present was canceled for political causes,” Warren wrote Thursday on social platform X.
“If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better,” Schiff wrote individually in his personal X put up. The California Democrat was a visitor on the present Thursday when the information broke.
Colbert stated throughout Thursday’s episode that he was made conscious of the transfer on Wednesday.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. I’m not being replaced,” he stated. “This is all just going away.”
The comic additionally has been one in every of Trump’s fiercest critics and ceaselessly options Democratic friends who oppose the president, together with Warren and Schiff.
The looming merger and Trump-Paramount settlement had raised some hypothesis about his future after the president known as for Colbert’s firing in a Fact Social put up final yr.
Up to date at 9:55 a.m. EDT.
