David Letterman simply issued a daring takedown of CBS for canceling The Late Present With Stephen Colbert.
On July 25, Letterman weighed in on the community’s resolution to finish Stephen Colbert’s present in Might 2026 in a video printed on the Letterman YouTube channel.
“I don’t assume it was cash,” he advised host Barbara Gaines, who labored as an govt producer on The Late Present with David Letterman. “That is pure cowardice.”
“It’s all very unusual. It was a little bit of a shock,” Letterman, 78, who hosted The Late Present from 1993 to 2015, admitted.
“10 years in the past, I give up and left. After which Stephen Colbert comes alongside, and fairly rapidly established himself as a exact, crisp, witty political satirist. And sometimes his goal has been the present administration,” he continued. “Based mostly on that and simply the general leisure quota of the present, drew an awesome viewers and folks grew to become not hooked on however all the time trying ahead to political satire from Stephen Colbert. He was excellent at it and for 10 years, I believe, grew to become the face of the community.”
Throughout his response to the state of affairs, Letterman pointed to CBS’ mum or dad firm, Paramount, merging with Skydance as the rationale behind Colbert’s axing.
The brand new house owners “don’t need any hassle from that man,” he claimed.
“In the event that they had been dropping this type of cash, you’re telling me dropping this type of cash occurred yesterday. Yeah proper,” he added. “I wager they had been dropping this type of cash six weeks in the past, or they’ve by no means been dropping cash.”
On July 17, Colbert introduced by way of Instagram that CBS was not solely ending the present with him helming it, however the Late Present franchise as a complete. The community stated the transfer was a “purely monetary resolution” that wasn’t “associated in any strategy to the present’s efficiency, content material or different issues occurring at Paramount.”
Letterman additionally identified that CBS didn’t deal with Colbert “in the best way he deserves to have been dealt with.”
“What the f*** is Skydance, sincere to Christ? Is it a reduction airline? Is that what it’s?” he exclaimed. “I believe at some point, if not immediately, the individuals at CBS, who’ve manipulated and dealt with this are going to be embarrassed as a result of that is gutless.”
“I solely want this might occur to me,” Letterman concluded, noting that for him, “combating with community tv administration was primary within the playbook.”
The Late Present, weekdays at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS
