CBS News announced a significant programming change yesterday, effective next year. The network will no longer air "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," ending the program in May 2026.

As editorial decisions go, we congratulate CBS on getting rid of a blatantly liberal host who had scant respect for balanced political commentary. Most network programs have a liberal bias, and this has been true for at least 50 years. However, Stephen Colbert took this to an extreme when he made the conservative movement his target night after night for nearly a decade.

It was not that long ago that David Letterman was the king of late-night television. Letterman's grand finale, when he left CBS, was in 2015, before Donald Trump had even announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. Stephen Colbert took over the Letterman show and, for the last nine years, has made attacking Trump the centerpiece of his program, day after day, even when Trump was not in office. Colbert led other late-night comedy programs on various networks by following a simple formula: make Trump the butt of his jokes.

The iconic Ed Sullivan Theater marquee for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a fixture of CBS late-night television since 2015

Political commentary became the main topic on late-night shows, mainly due to Colbert. Veteran hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and David Letterman would also make jokes about politics, but their jokes targeted members of both political parties. During the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky scandals, it was Bill Clinton who was the target of those jokes. When Al Gore claimed that he was the father of the Internet, numerous comedians mocked him for being bombastic.

During the last four years, there have been hundreds of political stories involving how Democrats and the left made fools of themselves. During the 2020 presidential election campaign, the Democrats clashed with each other on the debate stage, vying to move further left. Kamala Harris dropped out of the presidential nominating race before winning a single delegate but was later selected as Joe Biden's running mate. Biden himself had decisively lost the first three nominating contests, but he somehow became the Democratic nominee due to backroom deals struck in South Carolina, including one in which he promised to appoint more African Americans to senior positions in the federal government. Bernie Sanders, who had been winning the youth vote, was forced to drop out when the rest of the Democratic Party coalesced around Biden.

Each of these was a significant news event that could have generated hundreds of jokes over weeks on late-night television. But Colbert largely stayed silent, refusing to criticize his friends on the Democratic left.

There were numerous instances during the Biden administration that would have prompted Johnny Carson or Jay Leno to pounce. Why was Biden slipping and falling while climbing the steps of Air Force One? (Comedian Chevy Chase came to prominence for depicting former President Gerald Ford in his clumsy moves around the Oval Office.) Why did the liberal media go along with the establishment’s narrative that Biden was fit to run for reelection in 2024 when everyone from Jake Tapper on down knew the truth? Why did the Democratic Party agree to a debate between Trump and Biden in Atlanta, and why did they have to engage in a massive campaign to push him out of the race after he had won the nomination decisively? How could the Democrats, in the middle of the night, install Kamala Harris as the nominee when she never participated in the primary nominating contest? Nominating contests are typically held with multiple candidates running, not just one. Running mates are typically selected for general elections.

Why did President Biden choose to announce his withdrawal from the presidential race via a post on the social media platform X? Was that the first use of an auto pen for such a momentous decision? How could the Democrats seamlessly transfer the entire Biden campaign infrastructure, including funds collected by Biden in his name, to Kamala Harris without inviting a review from the Federal Election Commission? Many viewed this as a massive-scale political maneuver.

Where was Colbert during each one of these events?

Poetic justice came to CBS when one of their most well-respected correspondents, Bill Whitaker of CBS News, grilled Harris in a "60 Minutes" interview. It was gripping television, the kind we expect from national networks, evoking the Tim Russert style of questioning guests in an aggressive manner. We would have liked for this interview to be broadcast live, but everyone knows that "60 Minutes" is an edited show.

The problem happened when CBS sent out teaser clips on social media before the Sunday night broadcast. These clips highlighted Kamala Harris's responses to questions about Iran and other foreign policy matters during the height of the presidential campaign. When the final broadcast aired, it was apparent that the segment had been heavily edited, omitting content that had been released just days earlier. The approach sparked criticism that optics took priority over full transparency. Stephen Colbert remained silent when the vaunted reputation of CBS News was at stake.

President Trump sued Paramount, the owner of CBS, over the edited "60 Minutes" interview. CBS agreed to pay $16 million in an out-of-court settlement, with the money going to Trump's future presidential library rather than to him directly. Paramount did not apologize as part of the settlement. Most companies never admit fault in out-of-court settlements, but the fact that they agreed to make such a substantial cash payment suggests that they recognized they were at least partially at fault.

As free speech advocates, we defend the right to criticize speech with which we disagree. We celebrate when perpetrators of bias are forced to step down, but we have never argued for censorship of the Colbert show or "The View" or any of the liberal programs that dominate television.

Media companies should thrive in a free market environment. Despite "The Late Show" typically being the highest-rated program in late-night television, the broader late-night landscape has been struggling. CBS cited financial pressures and the challenging landscape in late-night television as reasons for the cancellation. It was classic political posturing by the network, aimed at its liberal audience.

The truth is that the public failed to embrace Colbert's relentless partisanship. If Colbert's show had such a significant impact on audiences, his constant anti-Trump messaging should have made a difference in the 2024 election. But we all know what happened: the Democrats lost the White House, the House, and the Senate. President Trump won all seven battleground states. Clearly, the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” energy that Colbert displayed every night was not effective with American voters.

After nine years of partisan punchlines, the curtain finally falls. In the end, the joke was on Colbert. Good riddance, Stephen Colbert.

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