Letterman Weighs In on Colbert Cancellation

The host who jump-started The Late Show decades ago is finally speaking out after hearing of its soon-to-come demise. David Letterman weighed in on Friday in a video on his own YouTube channel over his former employer CBS canceling the program now helmed by Stephen Colbert, who has been on his own verbal rampage after the network pulled the plug and President Trump cheered the move.

• "I don't think it was money," Letterman mused to chat host Barbara Gaines, a former executive producer on his Late Show With David Letterman—a reference to CBS' claims that the nixing of the franchise, set for May 2026, was for "purely financial" reasons, not because Colbert had made any previous jokes about the current administration or President Trump himself, per Deadline. "If they were losing this kind of money, you're telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday?" Letterman scoffed.

• Instead, Letterman thinks it was "pure cowardice" that drove the network's decision, because the new owners "don't want any trouble from that guy." "I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is, this is gutless," he added.
• There were some other hints that Letterman, who hosted The Late Show from 1993 to 2015 before handing it off to Colbert, was displeased with the shake-up: CNN notes that he posted a video montage earlier this week showing him back in the day poking fun of his employers. "You can't spell CBS without BS," read the caption underneath the video.
• Letterman also had some nice thing to say about Colbert, whom CNN notes has been pals with him for years, despite their friendly professional competition. "Ten years ago I quit and left," Letterman said. "Then Stephen Colbert comes along and pretty quickly established himself as a precise, crisp, witty political satirist." He adds that CBS did not "handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled." More here.