CBS and its parent company, Paramount, have set an end date for one of the last public pipelines to some version of the truth.

Stephen Colbert is receiving messages of support and affection from his fellow late-night hosts after announcing that CBS was canceling his show, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” next May.

Just as Stephen Colbert and other late-night comics found their political voice, streaming shifted the power dynamics. As their influence waned, Trump’s rose.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! [Fox News late night host] Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”

Does the end of Colbert's show in May 2026 relate to the Paramount-Skydance merger? To Colbert's criticism of Donald Trump? To the demise of late night television? Who's to say?

In a statement on Thursday, the network said the late-night talk show was being canceled for financial reasons. Those reasons are associated with Paramount's proposed merger with Skydance Media, which requires Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval under the Trump administration. Paramount is the parent company of CBS.

President Trump cheered the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," saying he "absolutely loves" that Colbert "got fired."

On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert announced that CBS has canceled The Late Show. The iconic late-night series, which ran for over 30 years between both Colbert and David Letterman's tenures as host, will end in May 2026.

The president on Friday openly basked in the news and suggested that Jimmy Kimmel might be "next" in losing his late night job.