Copyright inquisitr
It’s been nearly four months since CBS announced that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would be coming to an end, and fans still aren’t over it. The network’s July statement said the show would wrap up in May 2026, but the timing raised eyebrows, and plenty of people started asking whether Donald Trump had something to do with it. Now, Colbert is finally addressing the rumor. In a new interview with GQ, the Emmy-winning host opened up about the cancellation, the conspiracy theories, and how he really feels about it all. “That’s not my reaction to it,” Colbert said when asked if he believed Trump was involved. “My reaction as a professional in show business is to go: that is the network’s decision.” Still, he admitted he can understand why people might be suspicious. The show’s cancellation came just three days after Colbert publicly criticized Paramount, CBS’s parent company, for agreeing to a $16 million settlement with Trump following a 60 Minutes interview. The company claimed the lawsuit was “completely without merit” but paid out anyway. “I can understand why people would have that reaction,” Colbert said. “Because CBS or the parent corporation, I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know, no one’s ever going to tell us, decided to cut a check for $16 million to the President of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division.” He paused, then added what many fans probably thought: “It’s unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual.” So, is it crazy to think Trump might have played a part? Colbert doesn’t think so. “If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think,” he said. “Because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once.” Still, Colbert made it clear that he’s not losing sleep over it. “My side of the street is clean,” he said. “I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to the refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem.” Trump, for his part, didn’t exactly deny enjoying the show’s cancellation. Just days after the news broke, he took to Truth Social to write, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.” Despite the chaos, Colbert insists there’s no bad blood with CBS. “They’ve been great partners,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking, there was no preamble to this. We’ve done cuts before, we’ve gone through budgeting, so it caught me off guard. But I meant what I said the next night after I found out. They’ve been very supportive.” As for what comes next, Colbert seems ready to move forward without bitterness. “I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore,” he admitted, “but you’d have to show me why it’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network to engage in that speculation.” In true Colbert fashion, he handled the question with humor, restraint, and a hint of frustration, not about Trump or the rumors, but about the business itself. Sometimes, even the biggest late-night stars can’t out-joke the politics of television.
