The fallout from Stephen Colbert’s exit from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert continues to make CBS look worse and worse. A new report suggests the late-night star shouldn't have put so much faith in his network bosses.
A new report from Puck claims there was a very specific reason why CBS Mornings did not acknowledge Colbert’s series finale last week. That's despite the episode being one of the biggest television events of the year and one directly tied to the network.
According to Puck’s Matthew Belloni, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski reportedly instructed CBS Mornings to avoid covering Colbert’s farewell episode altogether. Belloni wrote that the lack of coverage stemmed from “a specific directive” from Cibrowski, who was allegedly still angry over a recent Colbert segment mocking CBS News’ failure to secure a China visa for anchor Tony Dokoupil during President Donald Trump's visit. The bit also referenced CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.
The report also cited one person familiar with the situation who claimed there was internal frustration because Colbert had “kicked colleagues when they were down,” with some inside CBS viewing the joke as “unprofessional and unprovoked.”
It all sounds like a giant overreaction, and one that only brings more attention to Colbert's joke. The Late Show finale was a major cultural and industry event that generated enormous media attention, emotional reactions from fans, and commentary across nearly every entertainment outlet. CBS only looks more behind the times by ignoring it.
The report is likely to intensify criticism already aimed at CBS and Paramount following the cancellation of The Late Show. Many fans have spent months accusing the company of mishandling Colbert’s exit and prioritizing political optics over loyalty to one of its biggest stars.
For his part, Colbert largely protected his corporate bosses. Throughout the final stretch of the show, the host repeatedly praised CBS and Paramount while expressing gratitude for his time at the network. He consistently avoided going scorched earth on executives or openly endorsing theories that politics played a role in the cancellation.
So rather than responding to a host publicly attacking the network, CBS reportedly chose to freeze out coverage of a farewell episode from someone who mostly handled the situation with professionalism. If anything, much of the public criticism aimed at CBS came not from Colbert defenders like Jimmy Kimmel and longtime media observers who questioned the network’s motives.
For fans already skeptical about the official explanation for The Late Show’s cancellation, the idea that network executives were still holding grudges over comedy bits only adds to the narrative about the villain of the story. Calls for boycotting CBS could only expand now that we know how the network treated Colbert in his final days as an employee.
No doubt Colbert has already moved on. And while CBS has made no indication about returning to traditional late-night TV, it's even clearer now that the beloved comedian should never go back to Paramount in any capacity.
Add us as a preferred source on Google