If 2025 taught Stephen Colbert anything, it’s never a good idea to put your trust in billionaires.
Colbert, who received a shock last year after CBS unceremoniously canceled The Late Show, made a video appearance on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live on Wednesday (Dec. 31). Speaking with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper, the late-night host was asked what the “major lesson” he took away from 2025 was.
“So much has happened in the last year of your life,” said Cohen, in a not-so-subtle reference to the questionable cancellation of The Late Show. “I am curious what you left last year, having learned… What is the major lesson you learned? It’s not a controversial question.”
Without missing a beat, Colbert laughed and said, “Don’t trust billionaires.” He added, “They don’t get rich by finding that money on the side of the road, brother!”
In July 2025, CBS made a shock announcement that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will come to an end in May 2026. The company, which is owned by Paramount, called the move a “purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” The news was especially surprising because the franchise will be retired altogether, rather than seeking a new host.
When the cancellation was announced, Donald Trump immediately relished in the news. "I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired," he wrote on Truth Social. "His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show."
Colbert criticized Trump many times on The Late Show, with many suggesting that the cancellation was politically motivated. Before the news broke, Colbert called out CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million, in which he alleged the company falsely edited an interview with Kamala Harris. At the time, Paramount was awaiting FCC approval of its merger with Skydance Media, and the merger was approved the following week.
The deal put David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, in charge of Paramount-Skydance. The Ellisons are longtime allies of Trump. In an interview with GQ in November, Colbert agreed that it’s not far-fetched to conclude that his show was canceled due to political motivations.
“I can understand why people would have that reaction because CBS or the parent corporation—I’m not going to say who made that decision, because I don’t know; no one’s ever going to tell us—decidied to cut a check for $16 million to the president of the United States over a lawsuit that their own lawyers, Paramount’s own lawyers, said is completely without merit. And it is self-evident that that is damaging the reputation of the network, the corporation, and the news division.”