Overview

• CBS said rising production costs and a 50% drop in late-night ad revenue since 2018 drove its decision and stressed neither ratings nor content factored in
• Stephen Colbert confirmed the end of his show will also retire the 33-year-old Late Show franchise without a planned successor
• Paramount’s proposed $28 billion merger with Skydance, pending FCC and Trump administration approval, provides the corporate context for CBS’s move
• Paramount settled President Trump’s complaint against CBS in early July with a $16 million payment, which Colbert denounced on air as a “gros pot-de-vin”
• Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff have pressed CBS for transparency on whether political considerations influenced the abrupt cancellation