Letterman Calls CBS ‘Lying Weasels’ Over Colbert Cancellation

David Letterman has never been shy about saying exactly what he thinks, and when it comes to CBS canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he has plenty to say.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times published Monday, the late-night legend unloaded on the network that was once his professional home — calling its executives “lying weasels” and flatly accusing them of hiding the real reason Colbert’s show got the axe.

“He was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to take care of the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?’” Letterman told Times journalist Jason Zinoman. “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They’re lying weasels.”

CBS has maintained since last July that the cancellation of its flagship late-night franchise was “purely a financial decision” made against a “challenging backdrop in late night.” When the Times went back to CBS after Letterman’s comments, a spokesperson didn’t budge: “Unequivocally a financial decision.” Skydance did not respond to requests for comment.

What Letterman Really Thinks Happened

Letterman’s theory centers on the timing. CBS parent company Paramount was in the middle of finalizing its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media — a deal that required FCC approval, which, in turn, meant it needed to clear the Trump administration without complications. Colbert, one of late night’s most reliably sharp critics of Trump, was, in Letterman’s telling, tossed into the deal as a gesture of goodwill.

He also took direct aim at Skydance CEO David Ellison, previously accusing him of “willy-nilly spending” his billionaire father’s money. In an earlier YouTube interview shortly after the cancellation news broke, Letterman called the whole thing “pure cowardice” and said CBS “did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of that network, in the way he deserves to have been handled.” He added at the time: “I don’t think it was money. I think it was all to make sure [Ellison] was solid spending dad’s money.”

When he first heard about the cancellation, Letterman said his reaction was simple: “Disbelief.”

“I wondered: What the hell have they done to Stephen Colbert?” he recalled. Then the personal weight of it hit him. “Wait a minute, this used to be my show. It’s like driving by your old neighborhood and realizing that where you used to live, they’re putting up an adult bookstore.”

Letterman hosted The Late Show from its debut on CBS in August 1993 until stepping down in 2015, when Colbert — then coming off a decade-long run on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report — took over. For Letterman, this isn’t just a corporate reshuffling. It’s personal.

He acknowledged, carefully, that the TV landscape has genuinely shifted. “They don’t share the books with me. All of television seems to have been nicked by digital communication and streaming platforms and on and on. TV may be not the money machine it once was,” he said. But he didn’t let that acknowledgment let CBS off the hook. “On the other hand, what about the humanity for Stephen and the humanity of people who love him and the humanity for people who still enjoyed that 11:30 respite?”

He also said he’d be surprised if late-night television in its current form “lasts more than a year” — then softened slightly, adding, “Well, maybe specific shows. I don’t think it’ll ever go away because it’s just the best. It’s humans talking to humans.”

Colbert Has Questions Too

Letterman isn’t alone in his skepticism. In a separate Times interview, Colbert himself addressed the network’s stated reasoning with his characteristic mix of precision and barely-contained frustration.

“I do not dispute their rationale. I do make jokes about it. But I also completely understand why people would say (A) that doesn’t make sense to me and (B) that seems fishy to me,” Colbert said. “The network did it to themselves by bending the knee to the Trump administration over a $20 billion, settled for $16 million, completely frivolous lawsuit.”

That lawsuit stemmed from Trump suing CBS over its 60 Minutes coverage of Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election — a case the network ultimately settled for $16 million, a fraction of the original ask. For Colbert, that capitulation set a tone. When CBS announced the cancellation last July, he told his audience plainly: “It’s not just the end of our show, it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

What Comes Next — and Who Gets the Last Laugh

The Late Show’s final episode airs Thursday, May 21. The night after, Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed takes over the slot — and the arrangement is, financially speaking, a savvy one for CBS. Allen’s company is buying the airtime and selling its own advertising, meaning the network collects a check without spending anything on production.

Letterman, for his part, has no complaints about Allen himself. Quite the opposite.

“He’s been wildly more successful than any hundred of us,” Letterman said. “I periodically talk to him, and neither he nor I understand how he became a billionaire. God bless him. To hell with CBS. To hell with Skydance. To hell with the Winslow [Ellison] twins or whoever the hell these guys are. But Byron, he’ll still be providing comedy in that time period. I think that’s a valuable bit of resolution here.”

As for his own memories of the show he built, Letterman landed on something unexpectedly bleak. “The band had barely quit playing and they dismantled the set and there were dumpsters on 53rd Street, and as I walked out of the building, I saw the detritus and the debris of my life at CBS being tossed into the dumpster,” he said. “Now, that’s not a pleasant memory. I don’t know, talk to somebody else.”

CBS, meanwhile, isn’t changing its story. But with Letterman and Colbert both publicly calling the explanation into question — and the finale just days away — the network is going to have a hard time making that “financial decision” line stick.