All Eyes Turn to Jon Stewart Tonight

As the initial shock of Thursday night’s news that CBS is canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert gave way to resignation within industry circles over the weekend, attention turned to Jon Stewart.

While each of Colbert’s other late-night peers—Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Jimmy Fallon & Seth Meyers—have all issued comments in recent days, Stewart has been silent.

Stewart, of course, is no bystander to this story. He is Colbert’s one-time boss turned friend and peer, who happens to be an executive producer on The Late Show.

He also hosts his own highly political late-night show, which—like Colbert’s Late Show—falls under the Paramount umbrella.

Two weeks ago, writing in his newsletter Status, Oliver Darcy reported that with Paramount’s merger with Skydance entering its final stages, insiders were suggesting that both Colbert and Stewart were on shaky ground, with the combined company’s incoming Trump-aligned leadership seeming less inclined to renew their contracts when they expired.

Darcy’s reporting vis-à-vis Colbert ended up being validated quicker than even he likely anticipated. Which begs the question: Is Stewart next?

And by “next,” I mean is he the next shoe to drop? Because were Paramount to choose not to renew his contract, Stewart would likely be the first to go, since his Mondays-only hosting deal (and The Daily Show’s current season) ends in December 2025, while Colbert’s ends in May 2026.

As of last Wednesday, when he was taping the most recent episode of his Weekly Show podcast, Stewart seemed not to have any indication that any such news might be coming.

Asked whether he thought Paramount might give him the heave-ho, he said, “We haven’t heard anything from them. They haven’t called me and said, ‘Don’t get too comfortable in that office, Stewart.’”

Stewart added with a laugh, “Let me tell you something—I’ve been kicked out of shittier establishments than that. We’ll land on our feet.”

Just a few hours later, Colbert received the call from CBS.

Given how closely tied Colbert and Stewart are—not only is Stewart an EP on The Late Show, but they share the same manager, James “Baby Doll” Dixon (who is also an EP on both shows)—it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Stewart got the call at the same time as Colbert, and that, like Colbert, he plans to announce it on Monday night’s show.

As of this writing, there’s no indication that that happened. Whether or not Stewart breaks his silence on Colbert’s cancellation tonight is also an open question.

Though he’s not typically one to hold his tongue, as the primary face of a show whose own future is a question mark, might he not want to poke the bear and jeopardize the continued employment of his staff? Some have speculated that that may have been the thinking behind Colbert’s comments on Thursday, when he graciously called his bosses at CBS “great partners” and expressed his gratitude for having been given the job in the first place.

We’ll find out tonight. Stay tuned.