July 17, 2025

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Canceled - BREAKING NEWS Bonus Episode

Show Notes
Transcript

In this impromptu bonus episode of Daily Comedy News, host Johnny Mac discusses the surprising announcement of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert coming to an end in May 2026. The news, shared by Colbert himself during Thursday evening's taping, has taken the industry by surprise, especially given the show's high ratings. The cancellation is described as a financial decision unrelated to the show's performance.

While he has you, Johnny Mac shares his day's experiences, industry news updates, and reflects on his recording schedule disruptions due to this breaking news. He also hints at future episodes covering the latest Variety Comedy Impact report and the Montreal Comedy Festival.

00:34 Details on Colbert's Show Cancellation
01:32 Colbert's Reaction and Industry Impact
02:27 Personal Updates and Recording Schedule
03:41 Variety's Comedy Impact Report
05:04 Upcoming Episodes and Final Thoughts

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Callarogas shark media.

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All right, bonus episode.

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The headline Late Show with Stephen Colbert is coming to

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an end, but let's just catch our breath and catch

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up here. So it's around eight o'clock Thursday night. I'm

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minding my own business. I'm watching the season premiere of

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which was really good, by

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the way, and it's just been a fascinating day. Let's

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do the Colbert story and then I'll catch you up

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on everything else that's been going on. Thanks to Mike,

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who stuck this in the Facebook group where it probably

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wouldn't have seen it until tomorrow morning. The News, in

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a shocking move, reports CNN CBS is ending the Late

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Show with Stephen Colbert next year, and probably getting out

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of Late night altogether. The cancelation takes effect May twenty

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twenty six, at the end of the normal broadcast TV season.

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Industry experts are raising an eyebrow because the Late Show

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is typically the highest lighted show in late night. CBS,

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in a statement said quote, this is purely a financial

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decision against a challenging backdrop in late night is not

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related in any way to the show's performance. Contents or

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other matters happening at Paramount. Colbert shared the news during

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Thursday evenings taping, So if you happen to catch this

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episode Thursday night, I guess watch Colbert tonight at eleven thirty.

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Stephens said next year will be our last season. There

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were audible booze heard in the studio audience. The network

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will be ending our show in May. It's the end

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of the late show on CBS. This is all just

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going away. Colbert said he found out about the decision

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Wednesday night and said, I do want to say the

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folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so grateful

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to the tifty network for giving me this chair in

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this beautiful theater to call home. And I'm of course

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grateful to you the audience who have joined us every

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night in here, out there and around the world. Colbert

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took over for Letterman in twenty fifteen and said I

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wish somebody else was getting it after Colbert now of note.

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On Monday's show, when Colbert returned from vacation, he condemned

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the Paramount's settlements. They had settled a lawsuit with the President.

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Colbert likened it to a big fat bribe, I mean,

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very very interesting. Colbert has been a frequent critic of

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the current administration. People will also now have their eyes

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on The Daily Show with John Stewart. There had been

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speculation that the Daily Show could be canceled or John

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Stewart acts as part of this whole paramount CBS negotiation thing.

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A lot of money going around, So we'll see how

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this develops. All right, just to catch you up transparency,

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It's the summer and on Friday, I want to go

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to the beach because I can't go to the beach

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this weekend. So I was like, all right, I'll tape

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Friday and Saturday. So my normal pattern I usually do this.

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I don't do this seven days week. I try and

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do it forour So on Wednesday, I recorded Thursday show,

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and I recorded a Sunday show, and then I do

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Friday Saturday back to back, and sometimes Friday Saturday Monday.

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Also industry wise, usually news, the kind of news that

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makes the trades drops by ten am Eastern, Like if

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you're going to put something in the Hollywood Reporter of

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Variety one of those, it's by ten am Eastern. Also

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a rule of thumb, you don't release news on a Friday.

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You definitely don't release good news on a Friday, and

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you don't do that in the summer because people take

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beach days. You do sometimes release bad news on a

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summer Friday. Say you're canceling your late night franchise. That's

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something you might want to put out on a summer Friday.

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So I did my normal noon ish recording session today

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and banged out a bunch of episodes, and I was

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editing them. Variety frankly annoying the heck out of me.

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They announced a whole bunch of stuff. I'll tell you

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what the stuff is. I'm not going to do it now.

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I'll probably do it on Tuesday because against transparently. Oh,

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I just open up the Variety to tell you what

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the articles are, and I see right top story Colbert canceled.

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Let's see what Variety's doing this. I'm doing a very

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casual episode here, as you can tell. This article says

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there's been growing speculation of both Colbert and John Stewart

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each could be under growing scrutiny from the executives. That's

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the Finance Media, which is slated to acquire Paramount Global,

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the parent of both CBS and Comedy Central, and I'll

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editorialize the people that have ruined Star Trek. Although the

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season premiere was pretty good. It was the first good

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episode of Star Trek in quite some time. But that's

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not why you're here, So I won't go on a

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Star Trek rant anyway. The other stories that dropped today

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already knocked off the front page of Variety. Wow, that

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was quick. So they dropped all this. I know them

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all over the place. They dropped all this around one

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forty five. Not working with a script.

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I'm just free forming.

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At one five, Variety released the Comedy Impact Report subheader

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how Conan O'Brien Sarah Silverman on the Daily Show News

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team set the tone for What's funny in twenty twenty five.

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I will get to that on Tuesday. So here's why.

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Like I said, I already taped the whole weekend, and

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to go in and redo it, there's a flow like

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I'm setting up. I'm being very transparent. I'm setting up

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some Adam Sandler jokes. There are callbacks I have date

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specific today at the Montreal Comedy Festival type segments and

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to just go in and READO all that would just

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be a ton of works. I figured, let me just

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do this very casual bonus episode and again I will

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get to the Comedy Impact Report on Tuesday, although I

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suspect this Colbert thing is gonna be huge. Oh by

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the way, and in the morning, listen to the Shane

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Gillis episode. Shane fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I thought the material

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he crushed it. I thought the audience decided from the

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second he walked out that we're not gonna laugh at

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this man. But the material was great. I digress. So

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if Ridy put out the Comedy Impact Report, they also

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put out the Variety ten Comics to Watch Now The

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Why that came out on a Thursday afternoon and not

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last Monday or maybe even next Monday. I don't know why.

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On the list Friend of the Show, Jon Marco Ciresi

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real Quick, also Mary Beth Baron, Mojo Brooks, Joe Dembrowski,

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Robbie Hoffman, Nate Jackson, Sorry right up in about Nate

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in the La Times about two weeks ago, Morgan, Jay,

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John Marco, Joe Yang Summers, Steph tolev Interesting and to

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Kara Williams. All Right, I'll get into that on Tuesday

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as well. For reasons already discussed. Also also to annoy

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Johnny Mack, Variety put out today a big profile of

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Nicki Glazer to the headline Variety's Comedy Impact Honory Nicki

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Glazer on how stand up saved her life. We all

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thought I was going to die. That will also go

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into Tuesday show, maybe even Wednesday show, because there is

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just a lot going on. So the upcoming episodes, they're

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all long, they're all meaty. You've heard me talk for

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several days about how much is going on, even this

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bonus episode. I'm looking at the clock here. The raw

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recording is approaching the ten minute mark as I babble.

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So it's not like I did filler all weekend. I

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was catching up all weekend. So you've got tomorrow Shane Gillis,

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and they've got Saturday, Sunday, Monday, And I don't know

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if if I have to do bonus episodes about this

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Colbert stuff, I will do bonus episodes about this Colbert stuff.

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But just wow, I'm kind of shocking and well not

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really given the current environment. I see Mike from the

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Letterman podcast just posted about this on his Facebook page.

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Maybe I should catch up with Mike I mean, part

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of this is I'm planning on heading to the Montreal

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Comedy Festival, so I do need to work in advance,

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and don't know where I'll find an hour to record

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with Mike. But let me see, because this is really

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just really big news. Wow.

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So Mike, thank you for putting that in the Facebook group,

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or I might not have seen it till I probably

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would have been sitting on the beach going, oh geez,

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why did they do this now? And I'm not home.

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All right, that's a very casual, babbling bonus episode of

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Daily Comedy News Back in the Morning with Shane Gillison.

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I'm not going to mention this at all. Oh and

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just let me say I know for a fact because

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I did the late night jokes in the Saturday Show

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and I took a shot a Colbert for not having

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good monologues. So when you hear me take a shot

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of Colbert for not having good monologues, and I don't

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mention this story at all.

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That's why see you in the morning.