Jon Stewart defended his friend, Stephen Colbert, in an f-bomb-filled monologue against CBS and the Trump administration
CBS, which is owned by Paramount, said the cancellation was "purely a financial decision."
But Stewart said Paramount was capitulating to Trump over its proposed merger with Skydance Media.
Stewart slammed CBS and its decision during his expletive-filled monologue on "The Daily Show" which aired on Monday night. Both Stewart's and Colbert's shows share the same parent company, Paramount Global.
"Now, obviously, I am certainly not the most objective to comment on this matter," Stewart said of his longtime friendship with Colbert.
Stewart acknowledged the financial challenges that come with trying to run a late-night television show like Colbert's. Stewart said in his monologue that "late night TV is a struggling financial model" and is akin to "operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside of a Tower Records."
"But when your industry is faced with changes, you don't just call it a day. My god, when CDs stopped selling, they didn't just go, 'Oh well, music, it's been a good run,'" Stewart said.
Stewart said CBS's cancellation of Colbert's show raised questions over whether it was "purely financial" or the "path of least resistance" for Paramount's proposed merger with Skydance Media.
"I believe CBS lost the benefit of the doubt two weeks prior when they sold out their flagship news program to pay an extortion fee to said president," Stewart said.
Earlier this month, Paramount said it had agreed to pay President Donald Trump a $16 million settlement. Trump had filed a lawsuit against CBS that accused the network of "deceptive editing" of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris on "60 Minutes."
"Look, I understand the corporate fear. I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake," Stewart said.
"But understand this, truly, the shows that you now seek to cancel, censor, and control. A not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those f——— shows. That's what made you that money," he added.
Stewart said that capitulating to Trump would not play out the way Paramount expects. He referenced the president's recent lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal after it reported on a "bawdy" birthday letter Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein on the latter's 50th birthday.
"Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch. The owner of Fox News, the man other than Biden may be most responsible for getting Trump elected," Stewart said.
"Fox spends 24 hours a day blowing Trump and it's not enough. Imagine suing someone mid-blow. How could you? 'Finish up. Finish up down there and I'll see you in court,'" he added.
Stewart added that the reason Colbert's show was ending was not because of its financial health but the "fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America's institutions."
"This is not the moment to give in. I'm not giving in," Stewart said.
Jon Stewart reacts to CBS cancelling "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and tells corporations and advertisers to "sack up" pic.twitter.com/v8MrNpg28w
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 22, 2025
During his half-hour monologue, Stewart said versions of the f— word over two dozen times.
CBS said in a statement on July 18 that the cancellation of Colbert's show was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night." It added that the decision was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
Last week, Puck's Matt Belloni reported that Colbert's show had been losing more than $40 million a year. This is in spite of Colbert's popularity with viewers. His show was the only late-night show to gain viewers this year, per ratings from the American audience measurement company, Nielsen.
Advertising revenue across late-night shows like Colbert's has been dropping, too. Ad revenue for late-night fell from $439 million in 2018 to $220 million in 2024, The New York Times reported, citing data it had obtained from advertising data firm, Guideline.
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14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump tariffs live updates: Trump strikes deal with Japan as EU, US reportedly close in on pact
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The official added that the deal includes the elimination of non-tariff barriers that Trump's team say hinders American companies, including in areas like pre-shipment inspection requirements, motor vehicle safety standards, and restrictions around US medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The exact definition of how Trump defines transshipped goods has been a matter of some debate in recent weeks. The deal with Indonesia includes goods not just re-labeled but made with a significant portion of components from a third country and then assembled in Indonesia. It's a provision also included in a recent deal with Vietnam and is clearly aimed at China. Indonesian negotiators previously confirmed that a deal had been struck but not all details, with the country president's spokesperson telling Reuters the negotiations had been 'an extraordinary struggle.' 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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Coke's New Cane-Sweetened Soda Risks Upending Sugar Supplies
(Bloomberg) -- After four decades drinking Coca-Cola sweetened with corn syrup, Americans are going to get the chance to buy the soda made from domestic cane sugar. But whether US farmers can meet that demand is unclear. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US Why the Federal Reserve's Building Renovation Costs $2.5 Billion Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom Milan Corruption Probe Casts Shadow Over Property Boom The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday it will launch the new Coke variety this fall, a week after President Donald Trump said the company had agreed to start using the sweetener. The move is hardly an outlandish idea. In fact, Coke sold in other countries like Mexico is sweetened with cane sugar. And the company relied on cane sugar before switching to high fructose corn syrup around 1980. While the company will still be using corn syrup for original Coke, the addition of a domestic cane-based soda could help growers in Louisiana and Florida at a time when demand has been slow. However, a sustained bump in demand — especially if other companies follow Coca-Cola's lead — risks outstripping homegrown availability. US cane only makes up about 30% of overall domestic sugar supplies, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The rest comes from imports, which were about 2.2 million metric tons for the 2025-26 season, and American-grown sugar beets that perform better in colder climates. 'We have ways of trying to assist in new product launches, but mass usage — it would be very difficult for our industry to absorb that,' said Craig Ruffolo, a vice president at McKeany-Flavell, a broker of ingredients including sugar. A sugar supply shortfall would likely mean more cane imports from Mexico and Brazil, exposing American companies and consumers to higher prices just as they are facing market upheaval from Trump's tariffs. Cane sugar is more expensive than high-fructose corn syrup. On top of that, long-standing import tariffs mean US raw cane sugar futures are already more than double what the rest of the world pays. That price gap widened to a record on Tuesday. Foreign shipments can be costly, as decades-old US government policies limit how much sweetener can be cheaply shipped from other countries. That has long kept US sugar prices above that of the global market, even when lower-taxed imports under the US's limits and preferential shipments from Mexico were enough to keep the country amply supplied. In recent years though, the US has become even more reliant on record amounts of high-taxed imports after droughts impacted Mexican supplies. Trump's threat of a 50% tariff on Brazil also risks raising prices. If cane-sweetened Cokes are a success, higher demand would add to the pressure. Refined cane sugar cost more than 52 cents a pound in June, about 12% more than the high-fructose corn syrup used in Coke and nearly 50% more than beet sugar, according to the USDA. US refiners have some spare capacity to process more raw cane, but that will depend on imports and is still 'not going to be able to go on the scale of a mass distribution like a classic Coke,' said Ruffolo. Expansions to cane acreage are also limited. Louisiana's growth could be capped at 10%, while Florida doesn't have much more land for cane, he added. Coke has been working with cane sugar suppliers, and believes they will be able to bring enough supply to market if there is demand from consumers, Chief Executive Officer James Quincey said on Fox Business. RFK Jr.'s Push The new Coke product comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against the prevalence of ultra-processed foods, which are generally more likely to use high-fructose corn syrup. The company's move, while an incremental shift away from corn, could open the door for other companies to follow suit. PepsiCo Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ramon Laguarta said last week that it would follow consumer preferences on sugar and other natural ingredients. Coca-Cola uses cane in other US products like lemonades and teas, and is looking to use 'the whole toolkit of available sweetening options to some extent where there are consumer preferences,' Quincey said on a Tuesday earnings call. The new Coke with US cane sugar is expected to be 'an enduring option for consumers,' he added. It is still unclear how much sugar these new products will require, said Claudiu Covrig, the lead analyst at Covrig Analytics. It could end up being a tiny segment with 'more publicity than real volume,' he said. But if US beverage companies shift significantly toward cane instead of high-fructose corn syrup, additional imports could range from 300,000 to 800,000 metric tons. (Adds analyst quote beginning in fifth paragraph.) Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border What the Tough Job Market for New College Grads Says About the Economy How Starbucks' CEO Plans to Tame the Rush-Hour Free-for-All ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
USA Today
16 minutes ago
- USA Today
Colbert's cancellation: A ratings crisis or a political bribe? We investigate
Cue the late-night autopsy. Since Stephen Colbert's announcement last week that CBS would discontinue the "Late Show" and, as a result, his hosting gig, viewers and industry insiders alike have been quick to offer dueling explanations for the shocking shift. In one version, Paramount, CBS' parent company, is bending a knee to President Donald Trump, ousting his frequent critic Colbert to help appease an administration they hope will approve a major merger with Skydance Media before the FCC. In another, Paramount is reading the writing on the wall, as late-night and network television writ large struggle to keep up with streaming. Audiences, after all, seem more eager to hear celebrities spill on podcasts or short-form social media video series than the stuffy, scripted format of an interview show. We ran the numbers on the latter theory, and here's what we found. While Colbert's show is the top rated at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, it was losing a reported $40 million a year, so Paramount's "purely financial" explanation for the cancellation is at least partly true. Network TV has been receding from the spotlight for nearly a decade, as streaming continues to balloon. As late-night TV becomes more expensive and less profitable every year, ratings sink and costs go up, presenting for the genre an apocalyptic financial bind. YouTube clips may be viral, but they don't make up for the revenue lost as live viewership declines. Colbert, also was perhaps the least-viral of his peers, with hosts like NBC's Jimmy Fallon or ABC's Jimmy Kimmel pushing out more click-happy material to YouTube and social media. Still, Colbert claimed the largest number of viewers. Nielsen ratings show "Late Show" leading the pack so far in 2025 in the 11:35 p.m. hour, with an average of 2.4 million viewers for the first six months of 2025, down from 2.8 million for all of 2022. ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and NBC's "Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" were far behind in that metric, averaging 1.8 million (down from 1.6 million for the full year 2022) and 1.2 million (down from 1.5 million), respectively. Kimmel is replaced by guest hosts during the summer. Despite Colbert's dominance over his peers, his ratings have dropped steadily year over year. The fact that he has the biggest slice of the pie may then be moot, as the pie as a whole continues to shrink. Notably, "Gutfeld!" Fox News' raunchy, right-wing late-night show hosted by comedian Greg Gutfeld is now the number one show during wee-hours, seeing the rare ratings increase while his left-leaning peers on the other major networks continue to slide. The political juxtaposition may throw a bone to the other side, signaling a different political mood among network television audiences during Trump's second term. Regardless, Colbert's cancellation offers a canary in the coal mine of old-school TV programming – should CBS have had either the political or financial will to keep the "Late Show" on the air, it would have needed to shake up the format eventually, or dramatically cut costs. Back in 2014, Netflix only had three original series. Now the streaming bundling universe has eaten up much of entertainment. No one can predict what TV will look like 10 years from now. But if Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, the Jimmys, or any other late-night host wants to go for longevity, they'll have to evolve. Contributing: Kelly Lawler
