CBS’ recent cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has had a reverberating effect on the television landscape. While most have expressed shock and even rallied support around the late night comedy staple, former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno and former CNN anchor Piers Morgan have some contrasting views about the state of late night. Leno, who exited the late night TV scene in ...
Karu F. Daniels, New York Daily News | July 28, 2025
Executive producer Stephen Colbert of“ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” speaks onstage during the CBS/ Showtime portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on Jan. 6, 2018, in Pasadena, California.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images North America/TNS
CBS’ recent cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has had a reverberating effect on the television landscape. While most have expressed shock and even rallied support around the late night comedy staple, former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno and former CNN anchor Piers Morgan have some contrasting views about the state of late night.
Leno, who exited the late night TV scene in 2014, says he doesn’t subscribe to mixing politics and humor for a mass audience — a formula Colbert has favored since his Comedy Central heyday with “The Colbert Report.”
“I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, the pressures of life, wherever it might be,” the comedian said during an interview with David Trulio for The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. “And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but what happens (is) people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.”
He added: “Funny is funny …. I don’t think anybody wants to hear a lecture.”
Leno’s chat was apparently conducted before CBS announced the end of “The Late Show” after more than 30 years.
Morgan expressed less tact in his thoughts about the current hosts of late night TV shows.
The British broadcaster and former winner of “The Apprentice” gloated about the Colbert cancellation on social media.
“This is so damning,” he tweeted on Sunday. “Most of America’s biggest late-night hosts have become nothing more than hyper-partisan activist hacks for the Democrats – a party that’s rarely been more unpopular. No wonder Colbert got canned. More will follow.”
His comment echoes what the 79-year-old MAGA leader shared on social media days earlier — claiming to have inside knowledge about the fate of shows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, in the wake of CBS pulling the plug on the top-rated “Late Show,” in what they said was “ purely a financial decision.”
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