(KTLA) — “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is coming to an end next May, according to CBS News and Paramount.
The announcement from Colbert, 61, himself came during Thursday’s taping of the show.
“I have something to share with you, which I discovered just last night,” Colbert announced to the live audience as the cameras were recording. The crowd responded with audible “boos.”
“Next year will be our last season,” Colbert continued. “It’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS… This is all just going away.”
According to a statement given to CBS News by Paramount, “The Late Show” will conclude in May 2026, at the closing of the broadcast season, with financial concerns cited as the sole reason for this decision.
Paramount’s statement expresses: “We see Stephen Colbert as irreplaceable and will conclude ‘THE LATE SHOW’ franchise then. We have been proud to have Stephen as part of CBS. Both he and the show will be honored among the legendary figures of late-night television.”
The statement added that the decision comes against “a challenging backdrop in late night” and has nothing to do with how the show has been performing.
The move is the latest in some late night programming pruning at CBS. In 2023, the network brought “The Late Late Show with James Corden” to an end, taking the opportunity to also end the “Late Late Show” franchise altogether. This program had followed “The Late Show” since 1995.
Colbert’s tenure at “The Late Show” began in September 2015, when he took over for original host, late night legend David Letterman. Colbert rose to fame as host of Comedy Central’s popular news satire show “The Colbert Report,” which ran from 2005 to 2014.
During Thursday’s taping, Colbert lamented the end of the late-night staple, saying “I wish somebody else was getting it.” Nevertheless, Colbert said he was looking forward to finishing out his job “with this unusual gang of idiots for the next 10 months.”
