Another Daily Show host is is weighing in on CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—and he’s not holding back.
On the latest episode of his podcast Tennis Anyone, senior Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta (who also serves as one of the show’s rotating hosts), called the cancellation a “terrible decision,” and questioned CBS’s financial justification.
“If it’s important to you, you would keep it. You would figure it out,” Kosta said. “Do you know how much bullsh*t CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX puts out that loses money? It all loses money! Every once and a while something doesn’t.”
Kosta went further, suggesting political motives behind the move. “I think they’re kowtowing to Trump,” he said. “I think everybody is. Which is what authoritarian leaders want—they silence their critics.”
Colbert was informed of his cancellation just two days after he criticized CBS’s parent company Paramount for what he called a “big fat bribe”—a $16 million settlement with Donald Trump. Trump, in turn, cheered Colbert’s ouster on Truth Social, writing, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.”
Kosta also speculated why The Daily Show, which also falls under corporate parent Paramount, hasn’t drawn similar heat: “Maybe it’s a good thing that there’s 25 Daily Show hosts,” he joked. “Because it’s really easy to just point the finger at one person: Stephen Colbert. They can’t just say, ‘Kosta said this,’ like they say ‘Colbert, Colbert, Colbert.’ You know, we rotate the ball around. I don’t know, maybe that’s helpful for us.”
He also acknowledged that The Daily Show may have “flown under the radar because we’re on cable,” adding, “Because we’re not broadcast, because when you check into a hotel and you turn on the TV it doesn’t just turn on CBS, ABC or NBC. You have to find us.”
Still, Kosta seems confident in the show’s future—even if it means switching channels. “Maybe The Daily Show is in a good position because we’re on cable and cable’s dying and they could sell us to Hulu or Netflix—why couldn’t you go to Netflix or Amazon Prime and The Daily Show’s right there?”
Kosta is the latest in a growing chorus of late-night figures speaking out in support of Colbert—a group that’s included Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers & Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart.
