Key Points
- Stephen Colbert struggles to process The Late Show’s upcoming cancellation by CBS.
- CBS cites financial reasons, not ratings or performance, for ending the show in 2026.
- Colbert says, “I just want to land this plane gracefully…given how much effort we’ve put in.”
Stephen Colbert has yet to wrap his head around the fact that his long-running late night series, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, is coming to an end.
“No. No, no. Not at all. No,” Colbert, 61, told GQwhen asked if he’s wrapped his head about the cancellation during an interview published Monday, November 3. “I mean, I have accepted it. I’ve wrapped my head around that. But in terms of how I feel about it, no, I don’t know because the shows go on. I don’t necessarily know how I’ll feel about it until I’m not doing it anymore, because it’s all-consuming.”
According to the host, “everything is normal.”
“I’ve got nine months of shows to do. I can’t be thinking about it ending in May. I’ve got to think about the show on Monday. So when you say, ‘How’s the show, perfectly normal?’ Well, yeah,” he explained. “It wasn’t that normal when I had to tell everybody that the show was ending, but the next Monday I had to do a show.”
CBS announced in July that they were pulling the plug on the late night talk show, calling it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount,” the network explained. The decision was shocking as Colbert has held the top spot in late-night ratings for nearly a decade. However, CBS decided to pull the plug entirely on the series, as opposed to replacing the host.
Despite admitting his “surprise” at the cancellation announcement, Colbert added, “Every show’s got to end at some time.”
“And that’s just the nature of show business. You can’t worry about that. You got to be a big boy about that,” he told GQ. “But I think we’re the first number one show to ever get canceled.”
The comedian went on to explain that when his previous show, The Colbert Report, ended, it was on his timeline, and he had planned his next career move before taking over Late Night following David Letterman’s retirement “fell into [his] lap.”
“This is not my choice,” he explained of leaving his desk at CBS. “So I don’t know how we’re going to land this plane, but people have asked me, ‘Well, what do you think you’re going to do next?’ And the cleanest and really fullest answer I can give you, not that I don’t have thoughts, is, the honest answer is, I just want to land this plane gracefully in a way that I find satisfying, given how much effort we’ve put into it for the last 10 years.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is set to wrap in May 2026.
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