It has been exactly one year since Stephen Colbert delivered an emotional, unscripted announcement to his studio audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater, informing them that The Late Show would be ending. The announcement on July 17, 2025, marked the conclusion of a franchise that CBS executives eventually described as a purely financial decision driven by a challenging advertising market.
According to reporting by LateNighter, the decision to cancel the show was communicated to Colbert by his manager, James Dixon, just two days prior to the public announcement. While CBS President and CEO George Cheeks had publicly expressed confidence in the network’s late-night strategy as recently as May 2025, the internal reality regarding the show’s reported $40 million annual losses led to the final decision. The timing coincided with the final year of Colbert’s contract and ongoing negotiations surrounding the Paramount-Skydance merger.
Colbert’s final year on air saw a surge in viewership, culminating in a series finale on May 21, 2026, which drew 9.77 million viewers—making it the most-watched regular weeknight episode in the program’s history. Despite the network citing secular declines in late-night ad revenue, the abrupt nature of the cancellation drew criticism from industry figures, including former host David Letterman, who publicly characterized the network’s handling of the exit as “gutless.”