President Donald Trump declared Friday that additional late-night television hosts will lose their positions following his celebration of CBS ending Stephen Colbert’s program.
The president has consistently pushed the Federal Communications Commission to revoke broadcasting licenses from networks, demanded Walt Disney terminate ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, and called for Comcast’s NBC to dismiss Seth Meyers.
“Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”
Colbert led the highest-rated Late Show for 11 seasons before CBS announced its cancellation last year, attributing the decision to financial considerations. Late-night programming, a staple of American television since the 1950s, has experienced declining audiences and advertising revenue for several years.
NBC, CBS and ABC remained silent on the matter Friday.
CBS revealed in July it would terminate Colbert’s program shortly after the network’s parent company settled Trump’s $16 million lawsuit regarding edited footage from a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Following that settlement, the FCC greenlit Paramount’s $8 billion acquisition by Skydance.
The cancellation of the leading late-night program generated significant backlash from Democrats and critics who observed that Paramount was pursuing merger approval during the show’s termination. Multiple critics argued the decision aimed to appease the administration and represented an attempt to suppress political comedy in defiance of First Amendment speech protections.
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez stated Wednesday that Trump has openly attempted to remove programming he opposes from television.
“This administration cannot tolerate any critics, whether it’s late-night comedies, whether it’s ‘The View’,” Gomez remarked. “They are using every regulatory lever in their arsenal to go after content.”
The FCC is examining whether ABC’s “The View” breached equal time regulations during an interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico of Texas. CBS prevented Colbert from broadcasting a Talarico interview in February, referencing an FCC directive from January.
“Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV,” Colbert commented at that time.
Trump referenced a Kimmel joke last month as justification for the host’s termination, which Disney refused. The following day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr initiated an uncommon early license examination of Disney’s eight ABC television stations. Disney faces a May 28 deadline for license renewal submissions.
In September 2025, Carr pushed broadcasters to remove Kimmel from programming. ABC temporarily halted Kimmel’s show following his remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Carr’s actions received widespread condemnation from various political perspectives.
Carr rejected claims that government pressure forced Colbert’s departure. “He’s just not as popular or as funny as he once was, if he ever was,” Carr informed Reuters in March.
After Trump demanded NBC fire Meyers in November, Carr shared the statement on X.
