Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr mocked Democrats on Tuesday for their reaction to the decision by CBS to end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
CBS announced last week that the show’s final episode will be on the air in May 2026. That led to Democratic angst, with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts raising the claim of “political reasons” being the root of Colbert’s ouster.
“The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing. They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics,” Carr wrote in a post on X.
The partisan left’s ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing.
They’re acting like they’re losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 22, 2025
Carr also threw a zinger at Colbert for his f-bomb response to President Donald Trump’s glee at his departure.
“I’m surprised to learn that CBS didn’t find this stuff profitable,” he posted on X.
CBS said that although Colbert was tops in the ratings for his time slot, his show lost $40 million a year, according to Fox News.
But Colbert focused on a $16 million settlement between CBS and Trump, who sued over the way CBS edited a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris last fall.
Because Paramount, the parent of CBS, is in the process of getting a merger with Skydance approved by the FCC, Colbert said the settlement was focused on greasing the skids for federal approval.
“Now I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s [a] big fat bribe,” he said, per Fox News.
“That’s the crackpot view, and it’s politically convenient for Democrats, who’ve done their utmost to promote it,” Daniel McCarthy wrote in an Op-Ed posted by the New York Post.
“Colbert loses viewers and advertisers even with a $100 million budget — how poorly would a Colbert show more than 40 percent cheaper do?” he wrote.
McCarthy noted that Colbert has become irrelevant.
“Hollywood Reporter notes the average age of Colbert’s viewers is 68. According to CNBC, the average age of David Letterman’s viewers when he handed his timeslot to Colbert in 2015 was 60,” he wrote.
“All the data points in the same direction: ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ was a long time dying.”
“That’s true of late-night talk as a whole, too,” he said, noting that over at ABC, market forces will spell the demise of Jimmy Kimmel sooner or later.
“Donald Trump didn’t get Stephen Colbert canceled — everything Democrats like about Colbert did. And the late-night host’s fate will also be theirs if they don’t heed this market lesson.”
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