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Stephen Colbert hosted his first episode of The Late Show following news that CBS had cancelled the show on Monday, July 21. A litany of celebrities were in attendance at the taping, including Adam Sander, Lin Manuel Miranda, Weird Al Yankovic, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart.
In the announcement of the cancellation, CBS’ parent company Paramount — seeking the government’s approval for a multi-billion dollar merger with Skydance Studios — claimed that the decision to cancel The Late Show was a financial one, which was a sentiment that many bristled at given that The Late Show pulls in higher ratings than both The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
As a sign of solidarity with Colbert, all of the other major late night hosts were in attendance: Fallon, Kimmel, Meyer, Oliver, and Stewart — with Colbert having personal relationships with the latter two from his days at Comedy Central.
All of the current late night hosts showed up at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert taping in solidarity
Stephen Colbert just showing CBS/Paramount what a huge mistake they’re making (ratings and $ wise).
Had Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al playing Coldplay to an audience of: Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Adam Sandler and more… pic.twitter.com/4PGK4350OU
— Nadine Babu (@NadineBabu) July 22, 2025
In response to CBS canceling Colbert, iconic former Late Night host David Letterman also publicly took a stand against the network as he uploaded a 20-minute supercut of him ripping the network over the years and captioned the video “You can’t spell CBS without BS.”
Colbert, of course, also further addressed the cancellation during his lengthy monologue on Monday night, promising to take the gloves off over his final 10 months on the air.
“Folks, I’m going to go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far,” Colbert began.
“The gloves are off! I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump. Starting now…. I don’t care for him,” he joked.