CBS Cancels ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Days After He Joked About 'Big Fat Bribe' To Trump

CBS' "The Late Show" is coming to an end after three decades.

Host Stephen Colbert announced the news to the audience at a taping Thursday.

Colbert's last show — and the last episode in the "Late Show" franchise — will air in May, The New York Times reported.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” said George Cheeks, the president of CBS and co-chief executive of Paramount, CBS’s parent company told the Times. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount. Our admiration, affection and respect for the talents of Stephen Colbert and his incredible team made this agonizing decision even more difficult.”

The announcement came two days after Colbert spoke out against Paramount Global settling with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” story, calling it a "big fat bribe."

“I am offended,” Colbert said in his monologue Monday night. “I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”

The settlement was reached as part of a case brought by Trump centered around his claims that "60 Minutes" edited an interview with his opponent, Kamala Harris, to make her look smarter and boost her election chances.

The case spurred high-level departures and threatened to derail the company's planned sale, which requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which is dominated by Trump appointees, the Los Angeles Times reported.

There's been growing concern that both Colbert and Jon Stewart, a host of Paramount's "Daily Show," could be under scrutiny from executives at Skydance Media, which is set to acquire Paramount Global, Variety reported.

On Thursday, Sen. Adam Schiff of California posted on social media “If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”

The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert as winning his timeslot, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. It also said his late night show was the only one to gain viewers so far this year.

Colbert in 2015 took over hosting duties from David Letterman, who joined as the original host of "The Late Show" at its 1993 inception.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.