David Letterman held nothing back when addressing the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in a new interview. The former Late Show host directed sharp words at CBS and its new ownership while questioning the real reasons behind the decision.
David Letterman slams CBS for cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
David Letterman has harshly criticized CBS for cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The former Late Show host called CBS executives “lying weasels” in a New York Times interview published Monday. He rejected CBS’s claim that the cancellation was a “financial decision.”
Letterman told NYT journalist Jason Zinoman that the Skydance merger drove the decision. “He was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy,’” Letterman said. He added, “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They’re lying weasels.”
CBS announced in July 2025 that the historic late-night program would end for good. At the time, David Ellison’s Skydance was acquiring Paramount, CBS’s parent company. However, the FCC and, by extension, President Donald Trump still needed to grant final approval for the deal.
Notably, Trump has been a vocal critic of Colbert and the late-night genre more broadly. As a result, the cancellation’s timing led some to speculate CBS acted to appease the Trump administration. Letterman similarly suggested the network wanted to ensure the Skydance merger cleared legal scrutiny without complications.
Letterman compared the experience to “driving by your old neighborhood and realizing that where you used to live, they’re putting up an adult bookstore.” He joined The Late Show as host in 1993 and stepped aside for Colbert in 2015. Letterman previously called the cancellation “pure cowardice” in a YouTube interview shortly after the news broke last year. “They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled,” he said at the time.
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