- Paul Shaffer said that The Late Show‘s cancellation is “absolutely shocking.”
- The musician, who served as David Letterman’s sidekick on the show for 22 years, opined that “Stephen Colbert was absolutely number one.”
- Shaffer also said that he’s “glad that I was in and out of there while the getting was good.”
Paul Shaffer is stunned by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ending, too.
The musician, who served as David Letterman‘s musical director and sidekick for his entire run on the CBS late-night show from 1993 to 2015, discussed the show’s forthcoming conclusion during an interview with Entertainment Weekly at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival while promoting the documentary You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…
“Shocking. Absolutely shocking,” Shaffer says of CBS pulling the plug on the show. “That’s all I can say. I mean, I don’t know what more to say about it. Stephen Colbert was absolutely number one.”
John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty
Shaffer also remarks that CBS’ decision to finish The Late Show might indicate the death of all late-night talk shows. “I wouldn’t be surprised if those doom-sayers that are saying it signifies the end of the Late–Show-type-of-thing, you know, late night television, it’s over,” he says. “People will watch clips on their computers, and it all makes sense to me. I’m glad that I was in and out of there while the getting was good.”
Shaffer, who also led Letterman’s band during the comedian’s Late Night tenure at NBC from 1982 to 1993, expresses some pride in the longevity of their partnership.
“33 years,” he says. “No one ever got that far. No one did it for as long as we did, 33, and maybe now they won’t. They may not get to.”
CBS announced in July that The Late Show franchise would be retired in May 2026. Critics of the decision questioned whether the move was inspired by Colbert blasting the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit from President Donald Trump, or if the cancellation was connected to Paramount’s then-pending merger with Skydance, which officially closed in August.
However, CBS maintained in a statement, “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
Numerous prominent voices in comedy and politics lamented the show’s demise, including Jimmy Kimmel (who wrote “F— you and all your Sheldons CBS” on Instagram), John Oliver (who called the development “terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy”), Letterman (who called the cancellation “gutless”), and Jon Stewart (who opined that CBS’ decision was “f—ing wrong”).
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One late-night veteran who’s not concerned about Colbert’s future is Bob Odenkirk, who wrote for Late Night With Conan O’Brien after Letterman moved from NBC to CBS. “We’re gonna see lots more of Stephen,” Odenkirk predicted during an interview with EW at San Diego Comic-Con. “He’s gonna make stuff, ’cause Stephen is a creator, and a genius, and his voice is pure and wonderful.”
Reporting by Gerrad Hall.
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