MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough admitted that while the economic vigor it takes to uphold traditional late night shows has changed over the years, the timing of Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS’ “The Late Show” is a bit off, pointing out that the host just criticized his network’s parent company Paramount for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The economics of the late night shows just didn’t make the kind of sense that it’s made for the past 50 years through Jack Paar, the age of [Johnny] Carson, of course [David] Letterman, you go on and on,” Scarborough reflected on Friday’s “Morning Joe.” “So the the economics were making less and less sense, but the timing of this actually is terrible, and it’s terrible because you had the settlement with Donald Trump, and then you had Colbert and Jon Stewart criticizing that decision. And then a week later they’re saying, ‘Oh, unfortunately we don’t have the money to continue this.’
“I mean, it’s not even like they’re trying to hide the main purpose of it,” the host continued. “I mean, it’s certainly, again, you can make that economic argument, but that economic argument should’ve been made weeks before this or should’ve been made a couple months down the road. This just makes it look completely connected with the ’60 Minutes’ settlement.”
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segement below:
Scarborough was referring to Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, which houses Colbert’s long-running late night series “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” and its decision to pay Trump $16 million after the president claimed the network deceptively edited its “60 Minutes” interview with Harris to make her more likable in an effort to boost her chances at the polls.
The payout was met with widespread criticism by several media figures, including Colbert, which Willie Geist noted while also pointing out cutbacks happening in the broadcast world as a whole.
“It’s true that there’s trimming happening all over the place at broadcast networks. There are late night shows having to give up their bands and things like that,” Geist explained. “But Stephen Colbert two nights ago on his show called that settlement on the ’60 Minutes’ interview a bribe. He was very critical on the air of Paramount. And then about 48 hours later you have this decision coming down that his show would be canceled.”
Colbert shared the news on Thursday’s episode of “The Late Show,” saying that after 10 years, it would come to an end in May 2026, which CBS said was a “financial” decision. Colbert said he found out about the news the night before.
