Jon Stewart lambasted CBS’ decision to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” ripping their shared parent company, Paramount Global, for what he called a capitulation to President Donald Trump.
Stewart referred to Paramount’s intended merger with Skydance in an $8 billion deal, which is pending government approval, and said shows like “The Late Show” made CBS that money.
“Shows that say something, shows that take a stand, shows that are unafraid — this is not a ‘We speak truth to power.’ We don’t,” Stewart said. “We speak opinions to television cameras. But we try. We f—— try, every night.
“And if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourself so innocuous that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king’s radar — a.) why will anyone watch you? And you are f——- wrong.”
The profanity-laced segment, which aired uncensored, culminated in Stewart’s leading a church choir encouraging institutions to “sack the f— up” or “go f— yourself.” (Cable channels like Comedy Central, which airs “The Daily Show,” are not subject to the same profanity regulations as network stations.)
Paramount and Comedy Central did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Minutes later, Colbert on “Late Night” echoed Stewart in responding to Trump’s celebrating his show’s cancellation, offering his own “go f— yourself” to the president.
Stewart’s diatribe comes less than a week after it was announced that CBS would be canceling “The Late Show,” a stalwart of late-night television that Colbert took over in 2015. CBS said it was “purely a financial decision” and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Still, the news shook the entertainment industry and immediately fueled speculation that Colbert’s show, which regularly skewered Trump, had been a casualty of Paramount Global’s efforts to merge with Skydance Media.
That deal has been the subject of particular scrutiny as it awaits approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.
While media mergers and acquisitions have long been the subject of regulatory scrutiny over the outside power of consolidated companies, the Paramount-Skydance deal has taken on a particularly political flavor. Last week, David Ellison, Skydance’s CEO, met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and made a promise to embrace “diverse viewpoints” that will reflect “the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers.”
Since Skydance announced its intention to merge with Paramount in an $8 billion transaction a year ago, the deal has faced multiple delays — first under the outgoing Biden administration, then under Trump, who accused CBS News’ marquee program, “60 Minutes,” of distorting an interview with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris during the 2024 election and subsequently filed a lawsuit.
While many legal experts viewed the suit as frivolous, media reports said Paramount boss Shari Redstone favored exploring a settlement with Trump as a way to overcome further regulatory hurdles.
The settlement, for $16 million, was announced this month.
The settlement, and the negotiations leading up to it, rankled several high-profile people at CBS. “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley said in June that such an agreement would be “very damaging” to CBS and Paramount. In April, longtime “60 Minutes” editor Bill Owens stepped down, citing the program’s loss of editorial independence. CBS News boss Wendy McMahon quit a month later.
On Monday’s episode of “The Late Show,” Colbert blasted the agreement as a “big fat bribe.“
Colbert channeled an action-star hero and said CBS “made one mistake: They left me alive.”
“And now for the next 10 months, then gloves are off,” he told the audience.
He brought on “Weird Al” Yankovic and Lin-Manuel Miranda to cheer up the crowd with a Coldplay cover, and among those captured on the “kiss cam” were CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, fellow late-night hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, and Stewart and John Oliver.
A cartoon Donald Trump was caught embracing a Paramount logo in a sway, a reference to the recent viral incident at a Coldplay concert that led to the resignation of a data company CEO.
Stewart and Colbert have been close for years, dating to when Colbert joined “The Daily Show” in 1997. In 2005, “The Colbert Report” debuted, airing after “The Daily Show” and launching Colbert into stardom.
Skydance is run by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison. While the younger Ellison made a donation to President Joe Biden’s re-election fund in February 2024, shortly before Biden bowed out of the race, Trump recently signaled his comfort with his takeover of Paramount and its assets, which, in addition to CBS News, also include Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, The CW, MTV, BET and film franchises like “Smurfs” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
Stewart said on Monday’s “The Daily Show” that Colbert challenged himself by taking on “The Tonight Show,” with its vastly larger audience and scrutiny.
“Watching Stephen exceed all expectations in the role and become the No. 1 late-night show on network television has been an undeniable great pleasure for me — as a viewer and as his friend,” Stewart said.
Stewart acknowledged that late-night television is a struggling financial model. “We’re all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside of a Tower Records,” he said, but he added that when industries change, abandonment is not the answer.
“When CDs stopped selling, they didn’t just go, ‘Oh, well, music, it’s been a good run,'” he said.
Stewart, who said last week that he had not heard from Paramount about his show under the merger, made a joke about his own future.
“This is not the moment to give in,” Stewart said. “I’m not giving in. I’m not going anywhere — I think.”
