After Colbert Cancellation, Is The Daily Show Next To Go? Here's What Jon Stewart Has Said About His Comedy Central Future
Is Stephen Colbert's former Daily Show boss also in danger of losing his late-night perch?
One week after Status reported that Colbert and Jon Stewart were both on thin ice, and hours before CBS announced that it was cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Stewart addressed his uncertain future at Paramount-owned Comedy Central — specifically if the proposed merger with David Ellison's Skydance is approved.
"We haven't heard anything from them," Stewart said on Thursday's episode of The Weekly Show podcast. "They haven't called me and said, 'Don't get too comfortable in that office, Stewart.' But let me tell you something: I've been kicked out of sh–tier establishments than that. We'll land on our feet."
Stewart also acknowledged the current state of Comedy Central, adding: "Without The Daily Show, Comedy Central is kind of like muzak at this point. I think we're the only sort of life that exists on a current basis, other than South Park. But I'd like to think we bring enough value to the property — like, if they're looking at it as purely a real estate transaction, I think we bring a lot of value, but that may not be their consideration. I don't know. [Skydance] may sell the whole f–king place for parts.
"We've all got a surmisal [sic] about who actually [will own Paramount] and what his ideology is, but ideology may not play a part," Stewart suggested. "I just don't know."
Colbert announced The Late Show's cancellation at the start of Thursday's broadcast, addressing the audience from his desk and telling them, "Next year will be our last season." CBS, which is also owned by Paramount, "will be ending the Late Show in May."
The audience, of course, loudly booed this news, to which Colbert wryly replied, "Yeah, I share your feelings."
The Late Show franchise, which started in 1993 with David Letterman, will be retired as well. "This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," CBS said in a statement. "It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
That said, CBS' parent company just paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed over an interview with his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, with POTUS accusing the venerable news program of deceptive editing.
Earlier this week, upon his return from vacation, Colbert referred to the aforementioned settlement as a "big fat bribe" — and on Friday, Trump on Truth Social celebrated CBS' decision to cut the Late Show host loose.
Meanwhile, Stewart, whose current Daily Show contract is up in December, previously called the Paramount settlement "shameful."