Following CBS’s decision to cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and essentially fire Stephen Colbert in the process, President Donald Trump has been gunning hard for the remaining late-night hosts of broadcast TV.
In multiple instances, President Trump has claimed Jimmy Kimmel will be next to go, while also suggesting that Jimmy Fallon won’t be far behind him. These claims have created a lot of concern about the future of late-night and whether ABC and NBC’s parent companies would choose to stand behind their hosts or cave and part ways.
While the top brass at Disney and Comcast haven’t weighed in on the ongoing war between late-night and President Trump, one of the biggest names at NBC has hinted that NBC has no plans at all to give Fallon or fellow NBC late-night host Seth Meyers, the boot anytime soon.
Lorne Michaels claims The Tonight Show and Late Night are both safe
In an interview with Matt Belloni of Puck News, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels made it clear that he has no fear of NBC canceling The Tonight Show or Late Night. In fact, he insists that he’s been directly assured neither is in danger.
When asked if he had been assured by Comcast that Jimmy and Seth’s shows are safe, Michaels revealed he had been told that both The Tonight Show and Late Night are safe for the foreseeable future. In the process, he threw some shade at the CBS and Paramount brass, noting that Comcast’s CEO actually “has integrity.”
"Yes. I think [Comcast CEO] Brian Roberts — who I will be working for the rest of my life, who I have very high admiration for — has integrity.”
Ironically, while Michaels threw some shade Paramount’s way, when asked about his thoughts on the true motivation behind The Late Show’s cancellation, he opted not to comment on the speculation that the cancellation was politically motivated by Paramount.
Dancing around the question of whether CBS canceled Colbert to gain favor with President Trump ahead of Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, Michaels noted that, "I don’t think any of us are going to ever know that."
This is a sad truth as we’re likely never going to know the true reasoning behind the cancellation. Whatever the true reasoning is, be it political motivations or simply a financial decision, it’s incredibly disappointing to see The Late Show’s time coming to an end on CBS. But at least, according to Michaels, NBC has no plans of getting out of the late-night TV game anytime soon!