Late-night host Jon Stewart has delivered a statesmanlike speech on how he believes voters will feel when they finally “repudiate” the stranger-than-reality TV show that is the second Donald Trump administration.
“I mean this from the bottom of my heart—not just for this show, but for the country,” Stewart told fellow host Stephen Colbert in a guest appearance before Colbert’s Late Show franchise is retired by CBS.
“The day, the day—oh people, close your eyes and dream—the day that the electorate in this great nation we call home repudiates this putrid administration, the day that happens, my brother!” Stewart said, to rousing cheers from Colbert’s studio audience.
“There will be—and I mean this—the day that happens, there will be a joyful noise from the bowels of this great country that will make Hungary’s repudiation of Orban look like an Amish sabbath,” he said, referring to Hungarians voting out the authoritarian Viktor Orban, a close friend of both Trump and Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, in a historic election last month.
“It’s gonna come,” Stewart concluded. “We are tired! We are tired!”
Stewart’s meditations on joy and promise of light at the end of the tunnel came on what will have been a sad week for viewers of Colbert’s show.
The saga that led to Colbert’s cancellation began in October 2024, when Trump filed suit against CBS for its editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his then-opponent in the presidential race, Kamala Harris.
Trump claimed those edits had been geared to grant Harris an edge ahead of the election and sought $10 billion in damages, later upping the amount to $20 billion.
Paramount, the network’s parent company, announced a $16 million settlement with Trump in July of last year, with the money to go to Trump’s future presidential library and fees for the suit.
Colbert was having none of it. He described that payment as a “big fat bribe” in light of Paramount, at the time, seeking the Trump administration’s approval of a merger with media conglomerate Skydance, controlled by MAGA allies Larry and David Ellison.
The comic told his audience just three days later that CBS had informed him that his 2025-2026 season would be his last. CBS issued a statement calling the move a “purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” and insisted it was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The Trump administration subsequently approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance. The resulting entity, Paramount Skydance, has implemented a wholesale overhaul of CBS in what critics have decried as a blatant effort to align the network’s output with the president’s agenda.
CBS announced Colbert’s replacement in April. The network has said that beginning Friday, his slot will be filled by two back-to-back half-hour slots of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, who has expressly committed to keeping the show apolitical.
