Everybody is saying this is politically motivated and I don't really think I buy that. Not ruling out the possibility entirely, though. Anything is possible but the logic just doesn't work out to me.
First, CBS paid Trump. Trump didn't pay them. They already capitulated by paying him off. Why would they capitulate further by getting rid of the most popular late night program if it was profitable?
Second, if this was political why are they keeping the show on until May of next year? Wouldn't trump want them to cancel it sooner?
Third, they're canceling the late show entirely. If they were canceling it to get someone critical of trump out of there why wouldn't they just replace colbert with someone more favorable to him?
Fourth, these shows have had declining ratings for years now and the writing has been on the wall for a long time that these shows were not going to be able to hang around for forever in today's streaming climate. I think more cancelation announcements are likely.
As much as I hate trump and wouldn't put something like this past him I really don't think it's likely that this has anything to do with him. Doing this for money reasons is fully in line with how terrible capitalism is for art and I can absolutely believe that this was some dumbfuck accounting decision.