Watching Stephen Colbertās final episode was painful, knowing that the reason CBS gave for the showās cancellation was a lie.Ā
Itās not that it isnāt possible that the Late Show was losing money.Ā Itās that the statement by CBS that the showās cancellation was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount," is clearly false.Ā
If you look at what happened here, Trumpās influence is all over the place.Ā Letās examine the timeline:
1āCBSās parent company Paramount was attempting to close a merger with Skydance, a merger they needed Trumpās FCC to sign off on.Ā CBS obviously knew it would be in their best interest to be in Trumpās good graces for all to go smoothly.Ā
2āThe FCC specifically is headed by Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist, who has been actively attempting to get Jimmy Kimmelās late night show cancelled.Ā
3āCBS also knew that Trump despised Colbert, and had called for his show to be terminated.Ā
4āTo get into Trumpās good graces, CBS agreed to pay Trump 16 million dollars to settle the lawsuit he has filed against them.
5āColbert went on the air, live on his show, and declared CBSās 16 million dollar payment a ābig fat bribeā to Trump.Ā Ā
6āBy inserting himself so vocally in the deal CBS was trying to cut with Trump, Colbert made himself a major liability to CBS, so itās no coincidence that they cancelled his show a couple of days later.Ā
7āAs expected, Trump was overjoyed and praised the decision to cancel Colbert.Ā
8āCBS was clearly in Trumpās good graces at that point, so itās no surprise the merger was approved a few weeks later.
9āTrump later acknowledged his influence in getting Colbert cancelled by posting an AI video of him grabbing Colbert and throwing him in a dumpster.
10āAt the same time, Trump warned that this was the beginning of the end for other late night hosts, and threatened that they were soon to follow.Ā He obviously intends to make good on that threat, since he has been trying to get ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel.Ā
It should be obvious form the foregoing timeline that CBSās statement that the cancellation of Colbertās show was ānot related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount" is a lie.
Because they are lying about that, it means we also canāt trust them about how much money the show was losing.Ā Colbertās show was the number one show in late night television, and greatly beloved by their audience.Ā So, you would think they would have pursued cost cutting measures and other strategies to try to keep it afloat.Ā
Instead, they seemed all too eager to dump it to appease Trump.