"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will end in May 2026, Colbert and CBS announced on Thursday. The company said it will retire "The Late Show" franchise, and called it "purely a financial decision.

Colbert confirmed the cancellation during a show taping on Thursday. CBS said the move was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night."

The network has called the cancellation “a purely financial decision”—but it feels like only the beginning of the end for an entire genre.