Colbert Launches YouTube Channel as CBS Copyright Drama Unfolds

Stephen Colbert launched a YouTube channel days after the final episode of The Late Show
His first upload was his appearance on “Only in Monroe,” a Michigan public access show he famously hosted in 2015
The episode featured surprise appearances by Eminem, Jack White, Jeff Daniels, and Steve Buscemi
CBS issued copyright takedown notices against fans uploading clips — then reversed course after backlash
Veteran TV reporter Bill Carter claimed Trump was “personally involved” in getting the Late Show canceled

It took Stephen Colbert exactly 23 hours without a TV show to find a new one. It just happened to be in Monroe, Michigan.

The day after the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired on CBS, the former late-night host showed up on “Only in Monroe,” a public access show on Monroe Community Media. It was a callback — Colbert famously launched The Late Show from the same tiny program back in 2015 as a goof. This time, the joke had a sharper edge.

“It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV, so I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount,” Colbert joked during the taping.

The episode was stacked. Jack White and Jeff Daniels showed up. Eminem made an appearance. Steve Buscemi — in a move that felt almost too perfect — did an ad for a local establishment actually called “Buscemi’s Pizza and Subs.” And Byron Allen, who bought Colbert’s old CBS timeslots, was there too.

Then Colbert put it all on YouTube.

CBS Came for the Clips

Over the weekend, the episode went viral. Fans started uploading bootlegged copies across YouTube. And then, in a move that managed to be both predictable and tone-deaf, Paramount’s CBS started issuing DMCA takedown notices to yank the clips.

The internet did not take it well. Critics accused CBS of censorship — pulling down content featuring a host they’d just let go. The backlash was swift enough that CBS reversed course within days.

A CBS representative told Variety: “Stephen Colbert’s return to Monroe in the ‘Only in Monroe’ episode was financed and produced by CBS Studios.” The takedown notices were apparently issued as part of standard content protection, then pulled back as the decision underwent “a more thorough review.”

Colbert’s own YouTube channel now hosts the episode directly.

The Trump of It All

The copyright dust-up arrived alongside a separate, more charged conversation about why the Late Show ended in the first place. Veteran TV reporter Bill Carter — who wrote The Late Shift, the definitive book on the Leno-Letterman wars — claimed on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” that President Trump was “personally involved” in having the show canceled.

Carter pointed to an AI-generated video posted on Trump’s official X account after the finale, which depicted Trump grabbing Colbert and throwing him into a dumpster before dancing to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

“The government was pushing to get rid of this man because he was a critic,” Carter said. “That is so alien to our values that I think most Americans know this is not something we do. We don’t shut people up.”

Trump and Colbert’s feud has been a running thread since 2016. Whether it was a factor in the show’s end depends on who you ask — but the AI dumpster video, posted from an official presidential account, did not exactly suggest indifference.

Colbert, for his part, seems unbothered. He has a YouTube channel now. And Monroe has a new favorite son.