Stephen Colbert got an assist from some of his late-night rivals following CBS’s sudden decision to axe “The Late Show” in a send-up of the viral Coldplay kiss-cam video.
Colbert set up the bit this way: “Some people see this show going away as a sign of something truly dire… We here at ‘The Late Show’ never saw our job as changing anything other than how you felt at the end of the day… Or rather, changing how you felt the next morning, when you watched on your phone, which is why broadcast TV is dying — you’re part of the problem, look in the mirror.”
“Point is, I don’t want this show to be associated with making you sad or anxious,” Colbert continued. “So I thought: music, OK? That makes people happy, right? So instead of me talking, here with a song to cheer you up are two musical greats” — whereupon he introduced “Weird Al” Yankovic and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Yankovic and Miranda launched into a rendition of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” and Miranda directed the camera operators to get shots of the audience, meant to evoke the social-media viral moment that the CEO and HR chief of tech start-up Astronomer were caught on the jumbotron at a Coldplay concert.
The “couples” spotted in the audience by “The Late Show” cam were: Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers of NBC; CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Bravo’s Andy Cohen (who have hosted a New Year’s Eve countdown show on CNN the past few years); Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald (of “Hacks”); and John Oliver of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” and Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert Claps Back at Trump’s Gloating About ‘Late Show’ Cancellation: ‘Go F— Yourself’
Colbert then interrupted Yankovic and Miranda. “I just got this note from corporate,” he said. “Your song has been canceled. It says here, ‘This is a purely financial decision,” with Colbert saying that since they began singing the song “the network has lost, and I don’t know how this is possible, $40 million to $50 million.” That’s a joke about the reported annual losses of “The Late Show.”
Colbert, in his opening monologue on “The Late Show” Monday, hit back at President Trump’s gleeful comment last week that “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired” — with Colbert telling the president, “Go fuck yourself” (with the f-word censored).
Fallon, Meyers and Oliver have each previously expressed shock and dismay over CBS’s decision to kill “The Late Show.” Meanwhile, L.A.-based Jimmy Kimmel of ABC wrote “Love you Stephen” and “Fuck you and all your Sheldons CBS” in an Instagram post last week.
Stewart, on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” was also in a profanity-laced frame of mind, but his invective was aimed at CBS and parent company Paramount (and other media companies who think “bending the knee to Trump” will save them). After introducing a gospel choir, Stewart sang that “if you’re afraid and you protect your bottom line, I got but one thing to say! Go fuck yourself!”
Critics have said CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show” appears politically motived. The announcement came two weeks after Paramount Global, CBS’s parent, disclosed a $16 million payment to Trump to settle his lawsuit alleging “60 Minutes” had deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris — and three days after Colbert blasted the settlement as “a big fat bribe” to try to win Trump administration approval for Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media. The WGA has called for the New York State attorney general to investigate “The Late Show’s” cancellation, saying it had “significant concerns” that it was “a bribe” to “curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval.”
CBS has insisted the decision to end “The Late Show,” which will end its 11-season run in May 2026, was a “purely” financial one. The network is not planning to relaunch the late-night show with another host. CBS also has said that Skydance executives played no part in the move to kill “The Late Show.”