Stephen Colbert‘s long-running late-night talk show, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” is coming to an end in May 2026. The host opened up about the show’s cancellation during an in-depth interview with GQ.
Stephen Colbert on the News of His Show’s Cancellation
CBS announced in July that it was pulling the plug on the No. 1 late-night show, calling it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
“It is not related in any way to the showâs performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount,” the network added.
The comedian, 61, revealed to GQ in an interview published Monday, November 3, that he found out about his show’s cancellation through a middleman.
“They didnât call me and tell me!” he said of parent company CBS. “My manager told me.”
He continued, “They told him, and he told me…I was so tired. I was lying down on my couch with a pillow over my eyes going, ‘Hey, James, whatâs going on?’ I was prone. And he said, ‘This is going to be the last season.’ So I sat up and was like, ‘Oh, okay. Well, thatâs interesting. I did not expect that.’”
Colbert recalled being told CBS was “getting out of the late-night space altogether because itâs no longer profitable for the network.”
Colbert Broke the News to His Audience
Colbert — who took over for David Letterman in 2015 — shocked fans when he announced the cancellation news live on his show.
“Itâs not just the end of our show, but itâs the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS. Iâm not being replaced. This is all just going away,” he said.
Now, months later, the host admitted to GQ that he has yet to wrap his head about it all.
“I mean, I have accepted it. Iâve wrapped my head around that,” he told the outlet. “But in terms of how I feel about it, no, I donât know because the shows go on. I donât necessarily know how Iâll feel about it until Iâm not doing it anymore, because itâs all-consuming.”
He added, “Every showâs got to end at some time. And Iâve been on a bunch of shows that have ended sometimes by our lights and sometimes by the decision of other people. And thatâs just the nature of show business. You canât worry about that. You got to be a big boy about that. But I think weâre the first number one show to ever get canceled.”
Colbertâs exit from CBS marks the first major network stepping away from late-night. The network has yet to announce what will replace Colbert’s time slot.
The post Stephen Colbert Reveals How He Found Out ‘Late Show’ Was Canceled appeared first on EntertainmentNow.