Last Week Tonight host John Oliver is looking forward to seeing Stephen Colbert let loose on The Late Show now that its curtain call is scheduled.
Oliver called CBS’ cancellation of Colbert’s show “terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy” while speaking with reporters on Saturday.
But with a smirk he said, “I’m partly excited to see what they’re gonna do for the next ten months,” apparently eager to watch Colbert take risks he might have held back on if his job were still on the line.
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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be taken off the air after its upcoming 2025-2026 season, with its final episode slated for May 2026. That leaves Colbert plenty of time to shake things up without conventional pressures and speak even more freely.
CBS pulled Colbert’s long-running show just days after the host criticized Paramount, the network’s parent company, on air, for paying what he called a “big fat bribe” to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit.
Paramount settled the $16 million lawsuit after Trump claimed the network edited a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to make her look better.
The move raised eyebrows across the industry and among Democratic politicians, who expressed concern that the firing of one of late night’s most popular hosts was driven by political pressure.
Oliver, who has taken jabs at his own network’s former parent company in multiple segments, called The Late Show’s discontinuation “incredibly sad.”
“I love Stephen, I love his staff. I love that show,” said the English-American comedian, who had appeared on Colbert’s program more than any other guest by February this year, according to Colbert.
“Late-night shows mean a lot to me, not just because I work in them, but because even growing up in England, I would watch [David] Letterman’s show, which of course was Stephen’s show, and think about what a glamorous world that was.”
He added, “I look forward to seeing what he’s going to do next because that man will not stop.”
After years of taking shots at AT&T, Oliver went after the telecom giant without restraint once it sold WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery)—the parent company of HBO, which airs Last Week Tonight.
Calling out AT&T’s monopoly status in a 2022 segment, he declared, “F--- AT&T now and forever.”
