Fans, political figures and fellow late-night hosts seemed stunned Thursday night when comedian Stephen Colbert announced that CBS would be ending The Late Show in May 2026, with many questioning what pushed the network and its parent company, Paramount Global, to make the decision.

Famed skydiver and BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner dies at 56 Baumgartner achieved international recognition in 2012 when he performed a jump from 24 miles above the Earth, higher than anyone before him. He died on Thursday in a paragliding accident.

Inside the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, Stephen Colbert was trying to make sense of that cataclysmic outcome in real time, both for himself and for the millions of viewers who had come to view him as an indispensable voice of comic insight and illumination.

Later, Schiff did address CBS’ decision to cancel Late Show, writing on X, “Just finished taping with Stephen Colbert who announced his show was cancelled. If Paramount and CBS ended the Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better.”