David Letterman delivered a fiery rant against CBS and parent company Paramount for cancelling Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” calling the decision “gutless” and “pure cowardice” as he labeled his successor a martyr of the network.
Letterman, who hosted CBS’s late-night talk show for 22 years, passionately defended Colbert during his conversation with former “Late Show” producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay on Friday — just over a week since the show was axed.
“The fact that they killed the franchise and told Stephen to go,” Letterman said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “Now, for Stephen, I love this. He is a martyr. Good for him.”
The 78-year-old comedian says Colbert had immortalized himself as the face of the network since he took over the iconic talk show in September 2015.
“10 years ago, I quit and left,” Letterman said. “Then Stephen Colbert comes along, and pretty quickly established himself as a precise, crisp, witty political satirist, and often his target has been the current administration.
“Based on that and just the overall entertainment quota of the show, drew a great audience and people became not addicted to but always looking forward to political satire from Stephen Colbert, he was very good at it. For 10 years, I think became the face of the network.”
On July 17, CBS announced that it would cancel Colbert’s show in 2026 due to financial reasons.
The show was losing between $40 million and $50 million a year, The Post learned.
Letterman didn’t believe the financial hardship claims were the reason for the cancellation, instead blaming the company executives who feared Paramount’s sale to Skydance wouldn’t go through.
“If they were losing this kind of money, you’re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday. Yeah right,” he said. “I bet they were losing this kind of money six weeks ago, or they have never been losing money.”
The comedian called out the network’s news branch, saying CBS News doesn’t make money for the company and is still around.
“Take a look at CBS News, it’s still in business and I’m not certain that that’s a profit center,” he said.
“I think the idea that they’re hiding behind money and they’re giving him another 10 months. That’s a huge chunk of money they’re gonna lose,” Letterman said.
Colbert’s cancellation came as CBS-Paramount Holdings finalized the sale of the network to Skydance Media for $8.4 billion on July 24.
“The f–k is Skydance? Honest to Christ. Is it a discount airline?” Letterman joked.
“I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,” he added.
The purported $8.4 billion sale comes in light of CBS settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump after the commander in chief accused CBS News’ “60 Minutes” of deceptively editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the weeks leading up to the 2024 general election.
Letterman called the settlement “pure cowardice” as the lawsuit targeted the network’s “pinnacle of journalistic integrity.”
Colbert, 61, has also called himself a “martyr” as he blamed his show’s demise on Trump, telling the commander in chief to “go f–k yourself” in his opening monologue on July 21.
Letterman wished the cancellation had happened on his watch as he now has to kiss “Colbert’s ring.”
The comedian had already commented on the shock ending to the long-time show.
“You can’t spell CBS without BS,” Letterman captioned a YouTube video of his old jokes against the Turner network.