...who was the chair of Paramount Global at the time the decision was made. This was a week or so ago.
Shari Redstone, ex-chair of Paramount Global who exited her family’s ownership of the media conglom this summer in a sale to Skydance Media, defended CBS’s cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — saying that late-night TV is a money-losing proposition.
Redstone, speaking at the Axios Media and Trends Live conference Thursday in New York, said the cancellation of Colbert’s show was not connected with the Trump administration’s approval of the Paramount-Skydance deal.
“I can tell you that we had been looking at late night. It was financially not viable. It had been that way for a long time. We had made a decision months prior to the announcement that we were not going to be going forward with that show,” Redstone said. “I love Stephen. He does a great job, but we really needed to be in a financially viable business. And you saw we did that with James Cordon as well.” CBS in 2022 announced the cancelation of Cordon’s “Late Late Show,” which ended its run the following year.
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/shari-redstone-stephen-colbert-cancellation-skydance-deal-late-night-tv-financially-not-viable-1236524230/
CBS statement at the time Colbert was canceled:
We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise” in May of 2026, CBS executives said in a statement. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television. This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/cbs-cancel-late-show-stephen-colbert-financial-decision-1236464356/
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