Stephen Colbert's late-night show was canceled by CBS. Do Americans approve?

Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald on Jul 23, 2025

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The curtain is falling on Stephen Colbert’s decadelong tenure as host of “The Late Show” — sparking a divide in public opinion, according to new polling.

On July 17, CBS News announced it will cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in May 2026, in what was described as a purely financial decision unrelated to the show’s content.

President Donald Trump — whom Colbert frequently skewers in monologues — quickly weighed in on the decision.

“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” he wrote on Truth Social. “His talent was even less than his ratings. ... I hope I played a major part in it!”

Colbert, who has helmed the show since 2015, responded by telling the president to “go (expletive) yourself.”

The host’s ouster comes one week after he criticized CBS News for paying a $16 million settlement to Trump as part of his “60 Minutes” lawsuit, calling it a “big fat bribe.” It also comes as SkyDance is attempting to buy Paramount, which owns CBS, a deal that requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.

As a result, some prominent Trump critics have insinuated there may have been foul play.

“CBS’s billionaire owners pay Trump $16 million to settle a bogus lawsuit while trying to sell the network to Skydance,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote on X. “Colbert ... slams the deal. Days later, he’s fired. Do I think this is a coincidence? NO.”

Here is how Americans are reacting to Colbert’s cancellation.

Public reaction to Colbert’s cancellation

The latest YouGov/Economist survey asked respondents whether they approved or disapproved of Colbert’s show being pulled from the air.

A plurality, 36%, said they were against the decision, while 29% said they were for it, and 35% said they were not sure.

A substantial partisan divide emerged, with 65% of Democrats opposed and 54% of Republicans in favor. Independents were more split, with 35% saying they disapproved and 26% saying they approved, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

The poll — which sampled 1,729 U.S. adults July 18-21 — also asked respondents for their opinions more generally on Colbert.

A plurality, 39%, said they had a favorable view of the late night host, while 33% said they had an unfavorable view. An additional 28% said they had no strong opinion.

Here, again, there were major differences across the political spectrum, with 66% of Democrats saying they had a positive opinion and 57% of Republicans saying they had a negative opinion.

And, when asked how often they watched Colbert’s show, most, 60%, said they never tuned in. Just 4% said they watched it daily, while 18% said they viewed it a few times a week, once a week or once a month.

Twenty-two percent of Democrats said they tuned in daily or a few times a week, while just 3% of Republicans said the same.

In the second quarter of 2025, Colbert’s show had the highest ratings of its time slot, 11:35 p.m., averaging 2.417 million views throughout its 41 episodes, according to TV Insider. The No. 1 late-night show, though, was Fox News’ “Gutfeld!,” which airs at 10 p.m. It garnered an average of 3.289 million viewers.

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