Jon Stewart used his platform on "The Daily Show" to deliver a vulgar message to CBS after the company cancelled the "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
Jon Stewart’s rebuttal to CBS canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is every bit as cringey and terrible as you would expect it to be. pic.twitter.com/vyuAjHgjIR
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) July 22, 2025
Before closing his own show with the profane musical riff, Stewart denounced CBS for canceling his peer's show over its recurring financial loss and attempted to cast doubt on the network's reasoning for the cut.
"And if I may, watching Stephen exceed all expectations in the role and become the number one late-night show on network television has been an undeniable great pleasure for me as a viewer and as his friend," said Stewart. "And now, Stephen has been canceled for purely financial reasons."
Colbert's late-night show was losing over $40 million a year for CBS, according to Puck News reporter Matt Belloni.
"'Late Show,' with its topical humor and celebrity interviews pegged to specific projects, has struggled on Paramount+. And of the three network late-night shows, ‘Late Show’ has by far the smallest digital footprint on YouTube and other platforms," Belloni wrote. "So from a business perspective, the cancellation makes sense."
Stewart himself admitted that "late night tv is a struggling financial model." He also said, "We are all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside of a Tower Records."
In the statement announcing the show's cancellation, CBS said, "It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
Stewart still insisted that the show's cancellation was precipitated by the upcoming merger between the entertainment group Skydance and Paramount Global, which subsidizes CBS.
"Look, I understand the corporate fear," said Stewart. "I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake, but understand this. Truly, the shows that you now seek to cancel, censor, and control, a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those f***ing shows."
Jon Stewart reacts to CBS cancelling "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and tells corporations and advertisers to "sack up" pic.twitter.com/v8MrNpg28w
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 22, 2025
Stewart also referenced Trump's lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch of Fox News, claiming that Murdoch was responsible for getting Trump elected to the presidency in the first place. Stewart said that he has no plans to water down his politically explicit commentary.
"I'm not giving in," said Stewart. "I'm not going anywhere. I think."
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