Stephen Colbert Confronts Theories Claiming Trump Got ‘The Late Show’ Canceled: It’s ‘Reasonable’ to Think It Was Politically Motivated but Not ‘Fruitful’ to ‘Engage in That Speculation’

“That’s not my reaction to it. My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: That is the network’s decision,” Colbert told GQ. “I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation — I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us — decided to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division. So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.”

Colbert added: “If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem. So people can have their theories. I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation.”

The late-night host, whose show is now ending in May 2026, went on to say that he’s had a “great relationship with CBS.”

“It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this,” Colbert said. “We do budgets and everything like that. We’ve done cuts and stuff like that. So that’s why it was surprising to me, as I said, but I meant what I said [on air] the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit on it. They’ve been great partners. They really have. They’ve been very supportive.”