Stephen Colbert may have been fired by CBS. But he is making it very clear that he’s not done with his presidential nemesis yet.
“Folks, I’m just going to go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far,” Colbert said at the top of his Monday monologue, saying that it really started to “sink in” over the weekend that The Late Show would really be ending next May. “But they made one mistake,” he said dramatically. “They left me alive!”
“On Friday, Donald Trump posted, ‘I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,’” the host added.
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Trump’s post came in response to Colbert announcing Thursday that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been canceled. The franchise, which began with David Letterman in 1993, will end for good next May after its upcoming season.
“How dare you, sir?” Colbert responded to Trump. “Would an ‘untalented’ man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?”
Colbert turned to a different camera, labeled “Eloquence Cam,” and declared: “Go f--- yourself.”
The message was met with cheers and applause from the audience, who started chanting “Stephen! Stephen!” in approval.
At another point, the host called into question CBS’ assertion that canceling his show was a “purely financial decision.”
“But how could it be purely a financial decision if The Late Show is No. 1 in the ratings?” he asked. “Yeah, it’s confusing. A lot of folks are asking that question, mainly my staff’s parents and spouses.”
Colbert also addressed another part of Trump’s Truth Social post. The president speculated that Jimmy Kimmel, ABC’s late-night host who’s long feuded with Trump, might be the next host to have his show canceled.
“No, absolutely not, Kimmel,” Colbert joked. “I am the martyr, OK? There’s only room for one on this cross, and I gotta tell you, the view is fantastic from up here.”
Colbert’s “martyr” line comes amid mass speculation that his show was canceled for his recent criticisms of his parent company Paramount.
To underline those political links, Colbert then staged a skit which culminated in a cartoon Trump and the Paramount logo caught in a secretive embrace reminiscent of the Coldplay cheating scandal.
Fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper also appeared on Monday night’s Late Show in solidarity with Colbert.
Prominent politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Adam Schiff have raised alarms about the timing of Colbert’s cancellation.
“CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump,” Warren posted on X Thursday. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
