Stephen Colbert may not be thrilled about the impending cancelation of The Late Show, but he is truly gleeful about being able to say whatever he wants while hosting for the next 10 months.
Addressing his audience on the late-night show on Monday night, Colbert declared, “Cancel culture has gone too far.” He recounted how CBS announced last week that The Late Show will be coming to an end in May.
“I want to thank everybody who reached out to me over the weekend, including one text from an unknown number offering a high-paying IT work-from-home job for only two to three hours a day,” he said. “Yes, I am very interested.”
He added that over the weekend “it sunk in that they’re killing off our show.” “But they made one mistake,” Colbert confirmed. “They left me alive.”
The host acknowledged, to chants of his name from the crowd, that this means that “now for the next 10 months, the gloves are off.” He continued, “I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump starting right now. I don’t really care for him. Doesn’t seem to have the skill set to be president. Just not a good fit.
Colbert explained that many people, including politicians, have been speculating about “the timing of this decision,” which came just days after he called out the network and its parent company for agreeing to a $16 million settlement with Trump on the show. CBS has claimed the cancelation was “purely a financial decision,” however his show is No. 1 in the ratings, as Colbert pointed out. Over the weekend, someone at the network released a “gracious anonymous leak” that said The Late Show was losing between $40-50 million a year.
“$40 million is a big number,” Colbert replied. “I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh, yeah.”
Colbert then responded to Trump’s Truth Social post about the cancelation, in which the president wrote, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.” As the audience booed, Colbert replied, “How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go fuck yourself.”
As for Trump’s claim that Jimmy Kimmel is “next,” Colbert said, “Nope. No, no. Absolutely not, Kimmel. I am the martyr. There’s only room for one on this cross. And I gotta tell you, the view is fantastic from up here.” Colbert then used the rest of his monologue to discuss the fact that “the president was buddies with a pedophile.”
Elsewhere on The Late Show, Colbert welcomed fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Andy Cohen onto the show. They were joined by a slew of other stars, including Adam Sandler, Anderson Cooper, Weird Al Yankovic, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, all there in solidarity with Colbert.
