It was the kind of protest that might’ve worked better as a punchline on “The Late Show” itself.
Roughly 20 demonstrators showed up Sunday outside the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street to voice support for embattled late-night host Stephen Colbert, whose show is set to end in May 2026. The small turnout—noticeable mostly for its brevity—prompted NYPD officers on site to quietly pack up shortly after it began, The New York Post reports.
The event’s organizer, a man identified only as “Slim,” framed the rally as part of a nationwide push for “integrity.” But with fewer people than a midtown lunch line, the crowd seemed more like a spontaneous vent session than a cultural moment.
“Our country is not perfect, never has been,” Slim declared. “But we’ve always had the First Amendment, and now Mango Mussolini is trying to take that from us,” he added, using a familiar slur for President Trump.
Wow. TENS of people have taken to the NYC streets to protest the cancelation of Stephen Colbert. pic.twitter.com/dVPIIH9fW7
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 27, 2025
Colbert’s supporters believe the show’s impending cancellation is political retribution masked as fiscal responsibility. CBS has insisted the decision was strictly financial, citing the show’s ballooning annual budget—reportedly over $100 million—and a consistent $40 to $50 million in yearly losses. Yet skeptics point to curious timing: the cancellation followed CBS parent company Paramount Global’s $16 million defamation settlement with Trump, which coincided with federal approval of its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
Colbert himself seemed to nod at the theory during his June 30 monologue, joking, “It’s a big fat bribe,” and vowing that with ten months left, “the gloves are off.”
If Sunday’s rally aimed to echo that defiance, it didn’t quite land. One protester—who declined to share her name—called the cancellation “a First Amendment attack,” adding, “We can’t stand for that.” But there weren’t enough people present to take much of a stand at all.
Behind the scenes, Colbert’s critics argue the show’s collapse was years in the making. According to media watchdog NewsBusters, Colbert’s guest list has grown increasingly partisan, with 176 liberal guests and only one Republican—Liz Cheney—since 2022. In 2025 alone, the show featured 43 left-leaning political guests and zero conservatives.
The show was also allegedly losing $40 million a year.
“Colbert’s show has been late-night group therapy for liberals,” said Curtis Houck, managing editor of NewsBusters. “Americans have continually shown they no longer have the time or patience for such partisan sneering masquerading as comedy.”
The analysis further noted appearances by Democratic lawmakers and progressive commentators including Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Hayes, John Oliver, and Ezra Klein. Even when Republican figures appeared—like Adam Kinzinger—they were not counted as conservatives due to their vocal opposition to Trump.
Colbert’s show is far from alone in its ideological tilt. NewsBusters tracked 511 liberal or Democratic guests across five major late-night programs since 2022, with just 14 conservative counterparts, according to The New York Post.
If Sunday’s turnout was any indication, however, the host’s parting fanfare may prove to be more of a liberal online creation than anything in reality, which speaks to why the show has been canceled in the first place.
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Since there were ‘only’ around 20 protestors there the network could have paid each of them a couple of million bucks each and still cancelled the ‘show’ with no more whining. That payout would be equal to their losses for on year and at least the buy out would (maybe) get infused back into the economy instead of just flushed.
All for Comedy OK