US late-night host Stephen Colbert has told US President Donald Trump to “go f*** yourself” in his first appearance since CBS announced it would cancel The Late Show.
The Late Show’s cancellation came two days after he spoke out against Paramount Global, parent company of his network, CBS, for settling with President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes story.
The network claimed the move was, “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late-night”.
In the days following the announcement, President Trump rejoiced on social media, saying he “absolutely loves that Colbert got fired”. Trump said Colbert’s “talent was even less than his ratings”.
In his Monday episode, the first since the show’s cancellation was announced, Colbert declared, “the gloves are off”, and said he would, “finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump”.
Colbert has been a long-time critic of the President, dating back to before Trump took office and was then known as a reality show host.
In his monologue, Colbert questioned CBS’s justification for cancelling the show.
“How could it be a ‘purely financial decision’ if The Late Show is number one in ratings? It’s confusing,” he said.
He cited reports claiming losses were somewhere between US$40 million (NZ$66 million) and US$50 million (NZ$83 million).
Alluding to Paramount’s settlement with Trump, Colbert said: “$40 million’s a big number. I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million? Oh yeah.”
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Responding to Trump’s comments on social media, Colbert told the President to “go f*** yourself”.
Other late-night hosts and celebrities, including Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver, were in the crowd during the show.
A segment parodied the infamous “kiss cam” video that has gone viral on social media, panning to the guests. The pair hiding from the kiss cam was an animated version of Trump cuddling the Paramount logo.
