For those not keeping track, we’ve officially entered the “grain of salt” stage of CBS’s Colbert cancellation saga, which is to say we’re seeing more stories attributed to unnamed sources who may simply be seeking to set the record straight—or may have their own agendas.
As we’ve reported, Lesley Goldberg—as reputable and well-sourced a TV trade reporter as you’ll find—published a sweeping piece in The Ankler yesterday that appears to draw heavily on CBS insiders.
To hear them tell tell the story, not only didn’t Stephen Colbert’s cancellation have anything to do with his on-air condemnation last week of Paramount’s $16 million 60 Minutes settlement with Donald Trump ahead of its merger with Trump-aligned Skydance (they claim Colbert’s manager was informed of the decision weeks earlier), but the decision to cancel the show was made without Skydance’s input or knowledge.
Further, Goldberg’s sources claim, CBS executives moved to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before Paramount’s pending merger was finalized because, as Goldberg writes, CBS leadership feared “the incoming regime would not allow Colbert to remain on the air, unchecked, through next May”.
One source is quoted saying, “They didn’t want Skydance to come in and say, ‘Get rid of it now’; they wanted to give him a proper send-off.”
Lending some credence to this storyline is the fact that Colbert has been (mostly) gracious to his CBS bosses in his public comments since last week’s announcement, repeatedly calling them “great partners”—although on his show Monday he did appear to take issue with leaks that The Late Show was running at a 40 million dollar deficit (a claim reiterated by Goldberg’s sources in her new Ankler story).
what ever happened to independ journalism. Your corporation has no back bone. I promise I will avoid all CBS programming and their sponsors when ever possible.