Overview

• The New Yorker profile describes a late-June proposal for a rapid-fire game on The Late Show just before Zohran Mamdani’s appearance with Brad Lander.
• Producers briefly considered prompts such as “Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas” and “Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state,” according to people in the room.
• The idea reportedly followed a letter from pro‑Israel figures urging tougher questioning, with Elisha Wiesel named as a signatory.
• The game was scrapped, and the broadcast instead featured questions on Israel and antisemitism in which Mamdani affirmed Israel’s right to exist and said there is no justification for violence.
• CBS declined or did not provide comment to outlets reporting on the profile’s account of the producers’ pitch.