Colbert cancelled? No worries. YOU are Colbert, or can be.
As we have all heard, Paramount, parent of CBS and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, just cancelled the show as of next May.
Paramount settled a lawsuit by Trump, claiming that a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris had been fraudulently edited. Paramount, without a fight, paid Trump $16 million and made other concessions as settlement.
Trump hates Colbert and has long called for CBS to fire him.
Paramount says the cancellation of Colbert was based completely on financial considerations. The fact that he had referred on air to the settlement as “a big fat bribe” or that Trump hates Colbert had nothing to do with it.
Many are skeptical.
This is a cultural loss. Colbert is part of the team of world-class satirists that Jon Stewart helped assemble for the Daily Show. Among them, Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, also a part of Paramount) and John Oliver (HBO Max) are still making us laugh at absurd, misguided and dangerous power.
There is great news: In the culture of 2025, YOU are Colbert, or can be.
Doing what Colbert and Stewart and Oliver did and do is hard. Just complaining and shouting earnest well-deserved, even crude, criticism of the current regime is easy, may be cathartic, but isn’t effective. Or funny.
The genius of Colbert and company is to be supremely informed, supremely intelligent, and supremely funny in ways that convey that information and intelligence AND make people laugh. With genuine heart. No, that isn’t easy.
But you and others can do it. And unlike the old days, the platforms are available to broadcast that as far as the quality and interest will carry it. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert averages 2.42 million viewers, 219,000 viewers in the key 18-49 demographic. So many videos and posts reach more than that.
It’s hard not to sound like victims, crybabies and scolds. It’s hard to be Colbert, Stewart or Oliver. But if you can be, or can learn to be someone anywhere near that neighborhood, saying and showing something anywhere near that range, do it. Often. Flood the plain.
It will not totally make up for Colbert’s absence, since he is one of a kind, but that absence shouldn’t last long. It will put you on the team as a funny and heartfelt champion of truth.
Bob Schwartz 