Former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann has dismissed suggestions that CBS’ decision to axe “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was down to politics – insisting, “That’s not what happened here.”
Olbermann doused rampant speculation that host Stephen Colbert was being cut over his ongoing criticism of President Trump, after the network announced its shock plan to cancel the show from May next year.
CBS publicly blamed financial reasons for its decision to can the more than 30-year-long franchise, but politically-laced theories quickly started spreading online in the wake of last week’s announcement.
“Sorry. That’s not what happened here. If it had, they wouldn’t be keeping him on until next MAY,” Olbermann fired off in a post on X.
He was responding to one tweet that had claimed “we are officially at the ‘pulling comedians off the air who criticize our dear leader’ phase of fascism.”
The 61-year-old comic, who is one of Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics, told viewers he’d learned of the decision late Wednesday after a decade on air.
The announcement came just days after Colbert had ripped the $16 million settlement Paramount, the parent company of CBS, had reached with the Trump administration.
Colbert had said the technical name in legal circles for the deal reached by Paramount, whose pending sale to Skydance Media needs the Trump administration’s approval, was “big fat bribe.”
“I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company,” Colbert said at the time. “But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
Trump had sued Paramount over how “60 Minutes” edited its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Critics had argued that the company had only settled in a bid to clear a hurdle to the Skydance sale.
In the wake of the news, a gleeful Trump took to Truth Social to say, “I absolutely love that Colbert was fired.”
“I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,” Trump wrote. “Has even less talent than Colbert. Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight show.”
Scores of late-night hosts, including Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, were among those to offer support for Colbert following the news.
