John Oliver is weighing in on the “incredibly sad” news that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has been canceled and will end next May.
While attending the first game of the Erie Moon Mammoths, a minor league baseball team rebranded by Oliver and his staff, the Last Week Tonight host was asked about his feelings about the surprising announcement.
“Obviously, I love Stephen, I love the staff, I love that show,” Oliver told the Associated Press on Sunday. “I’m partly excited to see what they’re going to do for the next 10 months, but it’s terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy.”
On Thursday, CBS announced that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert would conclude next year, ending the franchise after 33 years on the air. Though the network called the cancellation “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” many have questioned the timing of the announcement given that host Stephen Colbert recently criticized CBS’ corporate parent, Paramount Global, for settling a suit filed by President Donald Trump — a legal dispute that some experts think should have been dismissed on First Amendment grounds.
Oliver, who has not been shy when it comes to aiming for his own network’s former parent company, did not address this controversy directly but called The Late Show’s discontinuation “incredibly sad.”
He continued, “Late-night shows mean a lot to me, not just because I work in them, but because even growing up in England, I would watch [David] Letterman’s show, which of course was Stephen’s show and think what a glamorous world that was. So to have gotten to be on Letterman’s show and on Stephen’s show is always one of the most fun things.”
He concluded that it’s “very, very sad news,” but he’s “looking forward to seeing what [Colbert’s] going to do next because that man will not stop.”
Oliver and Colbert both served as correspondents on The Daily Show — though not at the same time — and have identified longtime host Jon Stewart as a mentor and dear friend. The duo are friends themselves, with Oliver having appeared on Colbert’s show several times over the years. Colbert officially took over as host of The Late Show in September 2015, replacing Letterman, who launched his version of the franchise in August 1993.
Colbert was notably gracious when he addressed the cancellation news on Thursday’s episode, thanking CBS, viewers, and all the Late Show band and staff for their support over the years.
“We get to do this show for each other, every day, all day, and I’ve had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we do every day with you in front of this camera for the last 10 years,” he said. “Let me tell you, it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was getting it. And it’s a job that I’m looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months. It’s going to be fun.”
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Oliver is not the sole late-night host to speak up about Colbert’s departure. Jimmy Kimmel reacted to the news in an Instagram post on Thursday night, writing, “Love you Stephen. F— you and all your Sheldons CBS.”
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