In a shocking move, CBS is ending The Late Show with Stephen Colbert next year, potentially exiting the late-night television business altogether.

The cancellation will take effect in May 2026, the normal end of the broadcast TV season, the network said.

The show airs in Australia on Network Ten at midnight.

The move is particularly surprising because The Late Show is typically the highest-rated show in late-night.

The timing is likely to prompt inquiries, as it follows just two weeks after CBS’s parent company, Paramount, resolved a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against CBS News.

The settlement – and Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media – spurred speculation about Colbert’s future at CBS.

Colbert, after all, is one of the staunchest critics of Trump on television.

Colbert alluded to the online worrying about his fate when he returned from vacation on Monday night.

He criticized the Paramount settlement during a broadcast, comparing it to a “big fat bribe,” and humorously remarked that his new moustache would shield him from the corporation.

“Okay, okay, but how are they going to put pressure on Stephen Colbert… if they can’t find him?”

CBS, however, said in a statement that “this is 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.”

Colbert shared the news at his show taping today.

“Next year will be our last season,” Colbert said as audible boos were heard in the studio audience.

“The network will be ending our show in May,” he said.

“It’s the end of The Late Show on CBS,” he added, going on to say, “This is all just going away.”

Colbert said he found out about the network’s decision “last night”.

“I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,” Colbert said.

“I’m so grateful to the Tiffany network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home.

“And of course, I’m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night in here, out there, all around the world.”

Colbert, who took the reins from David Letterman in 2015, said, “I wish somebody else was getting it” after him.

The network ended James Corden’s Late Late Show in 2023.

At the time, executives said that 12.35am show had become unprofitable for CBS.

Colbert helped produce a replacement show, After Midnight, that ended earlier this year.