Last week, CBS said it cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for “purely financial” reasons (the program has reportedly been losing $40 to $50 million a year). But that explanation isn’t sitting well with Democratic politicians like Sens. Adam Schiff, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren and the leftists in media. Their take: The network is kowtowing to Colbert’s favorite target, President Donald Trump.
It’s a theory that Colbert’s fellow late-nighter Jon Stewart tripled down on with the help of… a gospel choir on his weekly Daily Show hosting gig and, in the process, revealed just how far his influence has fallen.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Emily Jashinsky, host of MK Media’s After Party with Emily Jashinsky, to discuss Stewart’s outburst and why it illustrates a shift in the media landscape.
Stewart’s Song and Dance
Stewart’s The Daily Show runs on Comedy Central, which, like CBS, is owned by Paramount Global. He is clearly of the view that Colbert was cancelled because their parent company is trying to curry favor with the president as a potential merger between Paramount and Skydance Media awaits approval from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number-one rated late-night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder,” Stewart mused. “Was this ‘purely financial’? Or maybe it’s the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger to kill a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president who’s so insecure that he’s suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency.”
He also referenced the multimillion dollar settlement Paramount reached with Trump over edits made to a fall 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which Colbert ripped on-air days before the cancellation news. “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 settle with the president,” Stewart added.
He went on to claim that “fear and pre-compliance” is “gripping all of America’s institutions at this very moment.” Those institutions, he said, “have chosen not to fight the vengeful and vindictive actions of our pubic hair-doodling commander in chief,” and he had a colorful message for them.
“To those corporations and advertisers and universities and law firms… if you still think that bending the knee to Trump will save you, I have one thing to say,” he said before breaking into song. “I know you’re scared. I know you’re weary. I know your plans don’t include me. But these are troubled times, so sack the f-ck up!”
Backed by a choir, Stewart crooned that he “had one little phrase” for corporations that “are afraid” and “protect their bottom line”: “Go f-ck yourself.” He then led the chorus and the audience in a lengthy “go f-ck yourself” chant that aired uncensored.
Passed His Prime
Heading into Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show, the rumor mill suggested Stewart might actually resign in solidarity with Colbert and in protest of CBS’ decision, but that is obviously not what transpired. “No, he did not forgo his millions of dollars or his ridiculous do-nothing post on The Daily Show. Instead, he chose himself, and he chose to go with a profanity-laced rant against the company that owns Comedy Central,” she noted. “This came as no surprise to me because he has always been all about himself.”
What she didn’t expect, however, was that he would fall back on the same tired routine he has relied on for the last two decades. “I did not expect that he would really kind of embrace the same mistakes Oprah Winfrey has,” Megyn added, “where they take their old shtick that worked 20 years ago and try to revive it in their older bodies… and think in the modern day media environment… it is going to work.”
While she acknowledged that Stewart “was very relevant for a time,” Megyn said “that time has passed” and he has failed to “reinvent” himself. Jashinsky agreed and said the group of people most vocally rallying around Colbert in the wake of The Late Show getting the axe speaks to that.
“My new theory on why we have all of these Gen-X politicians flocking to Colbert’s defense on the left… Chris Murphy, Hakeem Jeffries, is because… Colbert and Stewart remind them of this time period when people felt like they had this moral energy around ‘resistance’ to the Bush administration, and there was something really edgy about tuning into Comedy Central or late night back in like 2009 or 2007,” Jashinsky posited. “It is this wave of nostalgia to look like you are standing by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.”
Lesson to Learn
Ultimately, Megyn said Colbert, Stewart, and all those in mourning have a thing or two to learn about the television business. “Would you grow up, you children? Put on your big boy pants and take it like a man,” she said. “Many of us have had very public cancellations – some were absolutely f-cking brutal – and we didn’t invite all our friends to come cry on the set and say, ‘Poor, poor her… Some of us took it like professionals, picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and moved on with life.”
“Is this how it is going to be for the next year watching this crybaby try to play the victim that his show got canceled,” Megyn asked. “Grow up. It’s called television, you toddler.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Jashinsky by tuning in to episode 1,113 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.