Jon Stewart on Monday blasted CBS for canceling Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Stewart called out the network for bowing down to what he called a “fragile and vengeful president.”
“Last week, as you may have heard, CBS, which happens to have the same parent company as the network this program currently airs on, unceremoniously canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Stewart said. “Watching Stephen exceed all expectations in the role and become the number one late-night show on television has been an undeniable great pleasure for me as a viewer and as his friend, and now Stephen has been canceled for purely financial reasons.”
He added: “And by the way, not just Stephen’s show, CBS has canceled the entirety of The Late Show franchise. Gone! Now I acknowledge, losing money. Late-night TV is a struggling financial model. We’re all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside of a Tower Records. But when your industry is faced with changes, you don’t just call it a day! My God! When CDs stopped selling, they didn’t just go, ‘Oh well, music, it’s been a good run.’ The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number one rated network late-night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder, was this purely financial? Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger with killing a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president, so insecure, suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency.”
Stewart also slammed CBS for what he called selling out:
“I believe CBS lost the benefit of the doubt two weeks prior when they sold out their flagship news program to pay an extortion fee to said president,” he said, referring to the $16 million settlement Paramount paid Donald Trump.
He didn’t stop there:
“Look, I understand the corporate fear. I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake. But understand this, truly. The shows that you now seek to cancel, censor, and control – a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those fucking shows! That’s what made you that money! Shows that say something, shows that take a stand, shows that are unafraid. And not to, believe me, this is not a ‘we speak truth to power.’ We don’t, we speak opinions to television cameras, but we try. We fucking try every night! And if you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourselves so innocuous that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king’s radar, A) Why will anyone watch you? And you are fucking wrong!”
Stewart mocked CBS’s fear of angering Trump:
“Do you wanna know how impossible it is to stay on Lord Farquaad’s good side? Donald Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News! The man, other than Biden, maybe most responsible for getting Trump elected!”
He wrapped up with a warning about fear taking over:
“So here’s the point. If you’re trying to figure out why Stephen’s show is ending, I don’t think the answer can be found in some smoking gun email, or phone call from Trump to CBS executives, or in CBS’ spreadsheets on the financial health of late-night. I think the answer is in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America’s institutions at this very moment,” Stewart said. “Institutions that have chosen not to fight the vengeful and vindictive actions of our pubic hair-doodling commander-in-chief. This is not the moment to give in. I’m not giving in. I’m not going anywhere… I think.”
Watch the full clip from The Daily Show below.
