Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr chided late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert after Colbert made a profane response to President Donald Trump's glee that the comedian's show was being canceled, saying Colbert "clearly doesn't have 'it' anymore."
In a Friday post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. 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." In response, Colbert said during his opening monologue Monday, "Go f*** yourself.
"I think it's just sad," Carr said in response to a text from Oliver Darcy, a journalist for Status News, the New York Post reported Wednesday. "Colbert clearly doesn't have 'it' anymore – if he ever did. I don't know if it's from TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome] or something else.
"He's paid millions of dollars to be funny and entertaining, and he's just not able to make it work. He's gotta feel bad about how the end is playing out."
CBS announced Thursday that "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" would end in May after the upcoming broadcast season, saying the decision was "purely financial" against a "challenging backdrop in late night" and not "related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
Paramount, CBS' parent company, reached a $16 million settlement with Trump over a heavily edited "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris that attempted to give the former vice president a favorable impression before the 2024 election. The FCC also is weighing a long-awaited $8.4 billion merger between Skydance and Paramount.
When asked by Darcy whether Colbert dropping the F-bomb on Trump threatened the future of the deal, Carr replied: "lol, no," according to the Post.
Colbert called Paramount's settlement a "big, fat bribe" days before his show was canceled, and others on the left have accused Paramount of bowing to political pressure by terminating the show.
"The partisan left's ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing," Carr wrote Tuesday in a post on X. "They're acting like they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to an exemption from the laws of economics."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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