Why Dems Are Really Upset Over Colbert's Canceling

It's been less than 48 hours since Paramount/CBS announced it was canceling 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,' and the Left has spent every second of that time with their hair on fire over it.

Senator Adam Schiff blames President Trump, as does his colleague Elizabeth Warren and CNN's Brian Stelter. MSNBC's Chris Hayes says the canceling of Colbert proves America has failed the 'test of a free society,' and Charlamagne tha God likened this to North Korea.

For starters, Paramount/CBS didn't cancel Colbert. They canceled the entire program. After May 2026, 'The Late Show' will no longer exist.

Why?

Well, the ratings sucked. 'The Late Show' pulled in 2.4 million viewers at night, with a paltry 200,000 in the coveted 25-54 age demographic. It cost Paramount/CBS $100 million a year to produce the show, including Colbert's $15-20 million salary (I've seen varying numbers on that one), and it was losing $40 million per year.

I compiled a list of every political figure (not including journalists and pundits) that appeared on Stephen Colbert's show in 2024. Try to see if you can spot some sort of pattern:

Hakeem Jeffries (x2)
Bill Clinton
Tim Waltz
John Fetterman
Kamala Harris
Mark Kelly
Ketanji Brown…
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) July 19, 2025

This works out to about one political figure per week:

Colbert aired 150 shows in 2024, which works out to one democratic politician appearance every 6 or so episodes, so basically he had one of them on a week for the whole run.
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) July 19, 2025

And now we're getting closer to the crux of the issue: the Left saw 'The Late Show' -- like they do all media outlets -- as a platform from which they could push their agenda. That's why one of their own joined Colbert every week last year.

The meltdowns over Colbert are reminiscent of the same ones the Left had when Elon Musk bought Twitter and when Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook would no longer fact-check content. They argued it was giving in to 'Right-wing' fanatics and that free speech was actually threatened when the Left no longer held a stranglehold on every media platform that exists.

They believe their duty is to spread their political propaganda in every facet of life: books, movies, radio, music, and television, because the Left can't win an argument on its merits.

Instead, they have to bully and try to force-feed it to people. When that fails, they yell about the BAD ORANGE MAN.

On top of all of this, it can't be far from the minds of Schiff, Warren, Hayes, Stelter, and the rest that the Democratic Party is polling at 19% approval.

They have crafted a narrative that Colbert was martyred by Trump because it's a comforting lie to avoid the truth people are bored with resistance programming. https://t.co/67bXJOpHFI
— Holden (@Holden114) July 19, 2025

Perhaps it's finally dawning on the Left that while they can infuse their propaganda into every form of media, they can't make people read the books, buy movie tickets, or tune in to Colbert. The ratings of the latter prove this.

Do they finally understand their influence on the American voter is diminishing because -- as I said above -- they can't win on the merits of their ideas and policies? That the American voter is tired of the lies and propaganda, and tired of the Left siding against them on every significant issue?

Perhaps.

Yet, instead of engaging in five minutes of introspection to understand how they got where they are, they are once again blaming President Trump for their failings.

So maybe they don't. In which case, they've got problems much bigger than the end of Stephen Colbert's late night career.