Stephen Colbert will host the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week, closing a chapter in American late-night television that critics and industry observers say reshaped political comedy during the Trump era while exposing the growing commercial and political pressures facing broadcast media.

The conclusion of Colbert’s tenure follows CBS’s decision last year to cancel the program after more than three decades on air. The franchise, launched in 1993 with David Letterman as host, later became the highest-rated late-night program under Colbert, who succeeded Letterman in 2015 after gaining national prominence through The Colbert Report.

In recent months, a series of public tributes from entertainers, journalists and political figures transformed the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York into a prolonged farewell event.

Appearances included musical performances by Hugh Jackman and Bette Midler, a poem by John Lithgow and comedic tributes from fellow late-night host Jimmy Fallon.The cancellation drew scrutiny because of its timing.

CBS announced the decision shortly after Colbert criticized a $16 million settlement between Paramount, CBS’s parent company, and U.S. President Donald Trump regarding a dispute involving 60 Minutes.

The settlement came as Paramount sought federal approval for its proposed $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.During his monologue, Colbert described the agreement as a “big fat bribe” and questioned whether public trust in the company could be restored.

CBS publicly maintained that the cancellation was based solely on financial conditions affecting late-night television. Industry analysts, however, noted that the broader environment for politically confrontational programming had become increasingly difficult amid declining advertising revenue, shrinking broadcast audiences and rising political pressure on major media corporations.

Letterman rejected the company’s explanation in comments to the New York Times, saying: “They’re lying weasels.”Media scholars say Colbert’s influence extended beyond satire. Unlike many traditional late-night hosts, he frequently incorporated discussions of grief, faith and personal hardship into interviews and monologues.

David Litt, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, said Colbert became “an important moral voice” during a period of political and cultural polarization.“He always obviously had a strong point of view,” Litt said, “but he also seemed like there was a fundamental kindness to him, and a generosity.”

Litt cited Colbert’s interview with Joe Biden, in which both men discussed personal loss and grief, as an example of the host’s unusual ability to blend emotional vulnerability with mainstream entertainment television.“That’s a hard kind of conversation to imagine happening on late-night television in general,” Litt said.

“Colbert could pull that off.”Colbert’s public openness about tragedy shaped much of his on-screen identity. When he was 10 years old, his father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash, an experience he later discussed publicly as formative in shaping his worldview and emotional perspective.

Television historian Bill Carter said audiences connected with Colbert because his personality remained visible beneath the political humor.“He is a very human guy, a very deep guy,” Carter said.

“People who watch these late-night shows like seeing the human side of this guy.”Colbert’s departure also reflects broader structural changes affecting the late-night television industry.

Network ratings and advertising revenue have steadily declined as audiences increasingly consume short-form digital clips through online platforms that generate lower profits for traditional broadcasters.The program’s replacement, Comics Unleashed hosted by Byron Allen, represents a lower-cost format centered primarily on stand-up comedy rather than politically driven commentary or celebrity interviews.

Carter described the shift as evidence that networks are retreating from the traditional late-night model built around high-profile hosts functioning as cultural and political commentators.“They are saying to the public: this is something we’re not gonna try to do any more,” he said.

Media analyst Stephen Farnsworth warned that growing political hostility toward major media outlets may further discourage broadcasters from supporting aggressive political satire.“You have growing conservative ownership of key media properties and a growing aggressiveness to use the FCC as a weapon to reduce criticism of the president,” Farnsworth said.

Trump responded to Colbert’s cancellation with a celebratory message on his Truth Social platform, criticizing the host’s ratings and suggesting that other late-night personalities could face similar outcomes.

The pressure on political comedy programs has intensified as entertainment companies navigate both economic instability and regulatory relationships with federal authorities.

Critics of the cancellation argue that these factors create incentives for media companies to avoid content that could provoke political retaliation.Despite the end of The Late Show, industry observers expect Colbert to remain active in entertainment.

He is currently involved in developing a new The Lord of the Rings project for Warner Bros. and has been linked to possible future work in streaming television, podcasts or live performance.During a recent interview filmed at Obama’s presidential center in Chicago, Colbert jokingly asked the former president whether he should consider a presidential campaign. Obama responded that Colbert could “perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen,” though he clarified the remark was not a formal endorsement.

Observers say Colbert’s legacy ultimately rests on how he redefined the emotional and political boundaries of late-night television during one of the most polarized periods in modern American history.

“He has a lot of skill,” Carter said. “He can do whatever he feels like doing.”

The remark came during Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” in which Kimmel staged a parody version of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, appearing in a tuxedo behind a podium and delivering jokes aimed at the Trump administration and political figures, including the first lady.

Referring to Melania Trump in a staged audience cutaway, Kimmel said, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”The joke drew sharp condemnation from both the president and first lady after a security scare at the actual correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, when a California man armed with guns and knives allegedly attempted to enter the Washington ballroom where Trump, Melania Trump and senior U.S. political leaders were gathered.

Authorities later charged Cole Tomas Allen with the attempted assassination of the president.Melania Trump said in a social media post that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” describing the comedian’s remarks as “hateful and violent rhetoric” intended to divide the country.

“A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” she wrote. “Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”Trump repeated the demand on his Truth Social platform, calling Kimmel’s comment a “despicable call to violence” and saying the comedian should be “immediately fired” by ABC and its parent company, Walt Disney Co.“

I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” Trump wrote.ABC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized the late-night host, saying the remark reflected broader rhetoric from Democrats and parts of the media that had helped “legitimize this violence.”

“Who in their right mind says a wife would be glowing over the potential murder of her beloved husband?” Leavitt said, although there was no indication Kimmel was directly referring to violence.The National Religious Broadcasters association said it had filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission seeking an investigation into ABC, arguing that repeated jokes about political violence contribute to a broader culture of instability.

“We’re seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn’t appear overnight,” NRB President and CEO Troy Miller said. “When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable.”Kimmel, one of Trump’s most frequent late-night critics, has repeatedly clashed with the administration.

Last year, ABC temporarily suspended him after comments related to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk triggered backlash from Trump allies and some local affiliates. The suspension followed pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee.

Kimmel later returned to air, saying he had not intended to make light of Kirk’s killing, though he stopped short of an apology and criticized station owners who removed him from programming before later reinstating him.Shortly after that episode, ABC signed Kimmel to a one-year contract extension that keeps him on air through May 2027.

His program has aired on the network since January 2003.During Thursday’s monologue, Kimmel also joked about Melania Trump’s birthday, saying she planned to celebrate “the same way she always does looking out a window and whispering, ‘What have I done?’”He also made a separate joke referencing Jeffrey Epstein while introducing the president and first lady.

Kimmel had not publicly responded to Monday’s criticism.