Jon Stewart didn’t hold back Monday night, delivering a fiery, profanity-laced monologue on The Daily Show criticizing CBS for canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Stewart argued the move had less to do with money and more to do with politics—specifically, currying favor with former President Donald Trump.
“Obviously, I’m not the most objective person here,” Stewart said, referring to his long-standing friendship with Colbert. Both shows are under Paramount Global, which has come under scrutiny for its recent corporate decisions.
While Stewart acknowledged that late-night TV faces financial headwinds—calling it akin to “running a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records”—he said industry challenges shouldn’t be an excuse to cut and run.
“When CDs stopped selling, they didn’t just go, ‘Oh well, music had a good run,’” he said.
Stewart questioned CBS’s claim that the cancellation was purely financial. Instead, he suggested the decision might be linked to Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance Media—and a recent $16 million settlement CBS paid Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris.
“CBS lost the benefit of the doubt when they paid what was essentially an extortion fee to the president,” Stewart said.
‘You’re Cancelling the Shows That Made You That Money’
He accused Paramount of acting out of fear—with $8 billion at stake in the merger—and warned that caving to political pressure would backfire.
“The shows you now seek to cancel, censor, and control—those are the shows that built your value,” Stewart said.
CBS has denied that Colbert’s political content played a role, saying in a July 18 statement that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision… not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters at Paramount.”
Still, recent reporting complicates that narrative. According to Puck, Colbert’s show was losing over $40 million a year, despite being the only late-night program to grow its audience in 2025, according to Nielsen. Ad revenue for the late-night genre as a whole has plummeted—from $439 million in 2018 to $220 million in 2024, The New York Times reported.
Stewart: ‘Fear and Pre-Compliance’
Stewart warned that the climate of “fear and pre-compliance” was spreading across American institutions, and said backing down to Trump would only embolden him. He referenced Trump’s recent lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a crude birthday note he allegedly sent Jeffrey Epstein.
“Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch,” Stewart said. “Fox News spends 24 hours a day blowing Trump—and it’s still not enough. Imagine suing someone mid-blow.”
He closed with a call to resist political pressure:
“This is not the moment to give in. I’m not giving in.”
Representatives for Stewart, Colbert, CBS, and the White House declined to comment.
