Rachel Maddow recently said on Nicolle Wallace\u2019s \u201cThe Best People\u201d podcast that CBS and its parent company Paramount should reconsider canceling \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert,\u201d calling the network\u2019s post-Paramount\u2013Skydance-merger culture a \u201chuge embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe you can now see where in history you\u2019re going to end up, and now\u2019s your chance to try to alter that and try to get right,\u201d Maddow said. \u201cAnd I think that a lot of institutions are in that same boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The political commentator and TV host also pointed to what she described as corporate \u201ccapitulation\u201d to President Donald Trump over the past year, including by the executives who chose to cancel \u201cThe Late Show\u201d in July. At the time of the announcement, CBS cited the cancellation as \u201cpurely a financial decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was absolutely transparent what CBS and Paramount were doing with getting rid of Stephen Colbert. \u2018Oh, it\u2019s a financial decision.\u2019 Right, because having the highest-rated late-night show in America for years is somehow financially unsustainable now when it wasn\u2019t before?\u201d Maddow said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time that you\u2019ve got Trump-connected oligarchs taking over this company and putting a right-wing blogger in charge of CBS News,\u201d she added, referring to executives like Bari Weiss, the newly appointed CBS News editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n
Maddow went on to call for Paramount to reconsider its cancellation of \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert,\u201d which is scheduled to broadcast its final episode in May 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey announced the cancellation of Colbert \u2014 everybody knows what it\u2019s about,\u201d Maddow said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to sort of live down their shame already, and I think in terms of the way they are capitulating, the CBS News takeover has been a huge embarrassment to everybody involved in it. And, you know, they should reverse the decision about Colbert. He\u2019s still on the air now, he\u2019s still got a few months on the horizon left before they plan on taking him off the air. They should change that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch Maddow\u2019s full interview on \u201cThe Best People\u201d podcast below.<\/p>\n