Stephen Colbert Gives the Middle Finger After Hugging CBS Evening’s John Dickerson on His Final Day as Anchor

Stephen Colbert appeared to deliver a blunt, unmistakable message to his employer — and he did it while celebrating his friend and former colleague John Dickerson.

At Slate’s Political Gabfest event on Thursday, Dec. 18, host David Plotz welcomed a panel that included Dickerson and Colbert. As the applause swelled, Colbert, 61, stood up, crossed the stage, and hugged Dickerson. Then, turning toward the crowd, he raised his middle finger overhead — a gesture that seemed directed at CBS, the network that canceled The Late Show in July, drawing loud cheers from the audience.

Dickerson, 57, confirmed his departure from CBS News in a post on his Instagram page on Oct. 27.

“Local news: At the end of this year, I will leave CBS, sixteen years after I sat in as Face the Nation anchor for the first time,” he wrote. “I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me — the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history — and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human. I will miss you.”

Colbert, meanwhile, announced on July 17 that his show would end after 10 seasons. He took over in September 2015 following David Letterman’s departure.

“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced,” he said. “This is all just going away. And I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners.”

CBS previously described the decision as “purely a financial” one. But the cancellation came days after Colbert criticized Paramount for paying President Donald Trump $16 million in a settlement — a deal reached while the company was pursuing a Skydance merger that required administration approval before it could proceed. The merger was completed less than a month later, on Aug. 7.

Colbert also addressed the controversy in an interview with GQ in November.

“It is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation and the news division,” he said. “So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual. If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem.”

“So people can have their theories,” he continued. “I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation. I have had a great relationship with CBS.”

Dickerson — who co-anchored alongside Maurice Dubois, who also marked his last day at CBS on Thursday — weighed in on the settlement in July on CBS Evening News Plus.

“We pride ourselves on our BS detector, so it ought to work on ourselves, too,” he said.

“When it doesn’t, the stakes are real, a loss of public trust, the spread of misinformation,” he added. “The Paramount settlement poses a new obstacle. Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?”

At the Political Gabfest event, Colbert and Dickerson also discussed what might come next after CBS. When Plotz floated the idea that they should “do something together,” both quickly agreed it was a “great idea,” according to Slate. Colbert added that he hoped to use his extra time “to learn something that I didn’t know before, to do something I’ve never done before.”