• 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.

The post Colbert Launches YouTube Channel as CBS Copyright Drama Unfolds appeared first on Cream.

• Jimmy Kimmel texted fellow late-night hosts “Oh, boy” after Melania Trump publicly called him out on social media
• John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Kimmel appeared together on a special episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
• The drama stems from Kimmel’s joke that Melania had “a glow like an expectant widow” — made days before a gunman targeted the WHCA dinner
• Both Donald and Melania Trump demanded ABC and Disney fire Kimmel over the remark
• The Late Show reunion was part of a farewell run for Colbert, whose final episode airs May 21

When Melania Trump went on social media to blast Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about her, Kimmel did what any reasonable person would do: he texted the group chat. And according to John Oliver, those first two words said everything.

“It’s an amazing thing to get a text from Jimmy saying ‘Oh, boy,’ and then a picture of Melania mad at him,” Oliver told the audience during Monday’s special episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “What a way to start the day!”

The episode brought together five of late-night’s biggest names — Colbert, Kimmel, Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers — for a rare joint appearance as Colbert counts down to his final broadcast on May 21. It was a reunion of the Strike Force Five podcast crew, and the conversation quickly turned to the controversy that had dogged Kimmel for weeks.

The Joke That Started It All

On April 23, Kimmel taped what he called an “alternative” White House Correspondents’ Dinner segment for Jimmy Kimmel Live! — a parody roast that included a pointed line about the first lady. “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said during the bit.

The timing became deeply complicated when, two days later, a gunman was stopped attempting to enter the Washington, D.C. Hilton where the actual WHCA dinner was being held, with what authorities described as apparent designs on killing the president and members of his Cabinet. Melania seized on the moment, posting on April 27 that Kimmel’s joke amounted to “hateful and violent rhetoric” that was “intended to divide our country” and calling on ABC to “take a stand” against him.

Donald Trump went further on Truth Social: “This is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.” And then, separately: “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television. People are angry. It better be soon!!!”

Melania also called Kimmel a “coward,” saying “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”

Kimmel addressed it directly in his April 27 monologue, describing the comment as “obviously a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together.” He was more blunt in a follow-up: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch a call to assassination.”

The Group Chat Reaction

Back on Monday’s Late Show, Colbert asked the group whether they had ever imagined they’d be doing jobs the president of the United States had “strong feelings” about.

“You know what’s even weirder?” Kimmel said. “Doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about.”

“Most of us have avoided that part,” Meyers deadpanned.

That’s when Oliver dropped the detail about the group text — the “Oh, boy” message paired with a screenshot of Melania’s post. And then Fallon, never one to miss a moment, cheerfully threw Kimmel under the bus.

“And then I sent a text to you guys, and I said, ‘Hey, don’t be mad at me, but I liked it,'” Fallon said. “I think she’s got a point.”

When Colbert pressed Kimmel on how it feels to wake up and see that kind of attention rolling in, the answer was more self-deprecating than you might expect from someone at the center of a White House firestorm.

“The saddest part of it is that I realize in those moments that the only four people who care are sitting right here,” Kimmel said. “It takes 12 hours for the rest of the people in my life to even figure out that anything’s going on.” He paused, then added the kicker: “Two hours after that, a guy I used to work with sent me a text. He’s like, ‘Hey, do you know a real estate lawyer?'”

A Farewell With a Few Scores to Settle

The Melania drama wasn’t the only thing on the table. The episode had a charged undercurrent throughout, because everyone in that room knows what’s coming: Colbert’s last show airs May 21, after CBS announced it was ending The Late Show for what the network called financial reasons.

Colbert has been measured but pointed about the decision, particularly given that it came after Paramount Global — CBS’s parent company — settled a lawsuit brought by Trump over a 60 Minutes interview for $16 million. “The network had clearly already done it once by cutting that $16 million check,” Colbert told The Hollywood Reporter. “There are many people who believe there was another reason. And, as I said in the most measured tones I could muster, there is a reason why people believe that.”

Kimmel wasn’t quite as measured. He called out CBS and Paramount+ directly, asking the audience, “Why aren’t you people canceling Paramount+? Because you didn’t have it in the first place?” And when Colbert asked if there was anything left to say, Kimmel didn’t hold back: “The outrage that your show is being thrown off the air? I am waiting for angry Stephen to come out. I want to see you go nuts.”

The audience chanted Colbert’s name. Oliver joked, “That’s exactly what they shouted at Bruce Banner in the lab before things went south.” Kimmel, for his part, kept it going: “When this guy takes off his glasses and shakes out his hair, it’s the sexiest god—- thing that you’ve ever seen.”

Kimmel also announced he won’t air a new episode on the night of Colbert’s finale — the same gesture he made when David Letterman signed off years ago.

When someone brought up the likelihood that Colbert’s cancellation might eventually shrink the group, Kimmel found the line of the night: “Don’t worry, give me a few months and it’ll be Strike Force Three.”

The post Kimmel’s 2-Word Text After Melania Came for Him appeared first on Cream.

• Seth Meyers delivered a scathing monologue at NBCUniversal’s upfront at Radio City Music Hall, targeting CBS and Donald Trump
• He joked that “CBS upfront” just describes how Paramount paid Trump to drop its $16 million lawsuit settlement
• Meyers opened by calling himself the FCC’s “next” target, referencing threats against his own show
• He is set to appear on The Late Show’s final week alongside David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver
• Trump posted on Truth Social claiming Colbert was fired for lack of talent, not political pressure

Seth Meyers walked into NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday morning and wasted absolutely no time going after CBS — and the president of the United States.

The Late Night host opened his roughly 10-minute comedy set with a joke that landed with unmistakable weight in the current media climate. “I’m Seth Meyers — or as the FCC calls me, ‘next,'” he said, a direct nod to FCC Chair Brendan Carr reposting Trump’s call to fire him on X. It got a laugh. It also made a point.

From there, Meyers pivoted to NBC’s big win: for the first time in over a decade, the network will claim the broadcast crown for total viewers in the 2025-2026 season, dethroning CBS. “After over a decade, we have taken down CBS,” he said. “Well, the Ellisons did, but I’d like to think we helped.”

And then the knives came out.

“Seriously, what’s going on over there? They’re so in the pocket for Trump that I heard next year, Survivor is in the Strait of Hormuz,” Meyers said to applause. He followed that with his sharpest line of the morning, riffing on the fact that Paramount skipped the traditional upfront presentation format this year — opting instead for smaller events across the country and intimate dinners with clients and talent. “CBS did not hold an upfront presentation this year because ‘CBS upfront’ just describes how they paid Trump to drop the lawsuit.”

The Colbert Backdrop Makes It Personal

The jokes hit harder given the context. Meyers is one of five late-night hosts — alongside David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver — set to appear during the final week of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Stephen Colbert’s last episode airs May 21, exactly ten years after he made his debut on the CBS talk series. CBS confirmed the show’s cancellation just three days after Colbert called Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump over an edited 60 Minutes interview a “big, fat bribe.”

“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s ‘big, fat bribe,'” Colbert said on air in July 2025. The network announced the cancellation shortly after, framing it as a retirement of the franchise along with its “irreplaceable” host.

Trump, for his part, addressed the situation on Truth Social, insisting the decision wasn’t entirely his doing. “Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!” he wrote, before attributing the cancellation to what he called a “pure lack of TALENT” that was costing CBS $50 million a year in losses.

Meyers, of course, knows exactly where he stands in this picture. The FCC threat against him is real — Trump has spent months escalating his attacks on the Late Night host on Truth Social, at one point calling him “the least talented person” in television history and suggesting his anti-Trump commentary was “probably illegal.” That history made his “next” opener feel less like a throwaway gag and more like a statement.

He Spread the Roasts Around

Meyers didn’t limit his fire to CBS. He took aim at Netflix, noting the streamer had relocated its upfront event to Sunset Pier 94 on the Hudson River. “Netflix is hosting its upfronts at a pier on the Hudson River, because once a Netflix show hits two seasons, that’s where they dump its body.”

On the impending merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery — and the combined Paramount+/HBO Max streaming service it would produce — Meyers deadpanned: “So now you’ll get all your favorites in one place. Plus Paramount+!”

He also turned the lens on his own parent company, Comcast, joking about its failed bid for Warner Bros. Discovery: “Comcast actually made a bid too, but no one thought we were actually gonna get it. It was kind of like that one friend who always pretends to reach for his wallet after the check comes. ‘No, no, Comcast, you can get it next time.'”

On Peacock’s slow march toward profitability: “Comcast said on its most recent earnings call that Peacock is approaching profitability in the same way Kevin Hart is approaching seven feet tall.”

He also celebrated NBCUniversal’s poaching of Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan from Paramount in a reported $1 billion deal, joking that it means he’ll “finally get a call from my dad asking, ‘What channel is NBC on?'” And he closed on one final dig at his Eye Network rivals: “NBC is turning 100 years old this year. Which means right now, it’s watching CBS.”

Meyers will be back in front of a CBS camera soon enough — appearing alongside his fellow late-night peers to send Colbert off in style. Whatever gets said on that stage on May 21, you can bet it won’t be subdued.

The post Seth Meyers Torches CBS at Upfronts Over Colbert Cancellation appeared first on Cream.