Fired Stephen Colbert professes his ‘love’ for new CBS boss David Ellison: ‘That oughta buy us a couple more months’

Stephen Colbert kicked off The Late Show Thursday with a sarcastic jab at his soon-to-be former boss, expressing his “love” for Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison while quipping that he just bought his canceled show a “couple more months.”

Colbert, whose decade-plus run with CBS wraps up next May, opened the show by acknowledging that it was a special occasion that he wanted to commemorate with his studio audience.

“I join you tonight in a celebratory mood because, as you know, today is National Boss’ Day,” the Emmy-winning host began. “I hope you all treated your boss to their favorite gift — two minutes of awkward chitchat until the elevator arrives. Remember to say your kids’ names so they don’t have to.”

The late-night comic then turned directly to the camera – where his face was suddenly framed within a graphic labeled the “David Ellison Appreciation Cam,” and a photo of the smiling CEO was superimposed in the bottom corner of the screen.

“I want to take a moment to celebrate my new boss, Paramount CEO David Ellison,” Colbert gleefully declared. “Mr. Ellison, I love you.”

After taking a beat to soak up some laughs, Colbert then tossed in his kicker. “That oughta buy us a couple more months,” he joked, prompting more applause.

Colbert, naturally, was referencing the impending end of his show this coming spring and his departure from the network he’s called home since 2015. Colbert’s exit was announced by Paramount this past July.

Despite The Late Show being the top-rated broadcast late-night program, Paramount said it was pulling the plug on the franchise due to it supposedly losing $40 million annually amid dwindling ad revenues and a shifting media environment, calling it “purely a financial decision.” Colbert and other late-night hosts – specifically ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel – have questioned claims of the show’s financial losses, suggesting that the cancellation had more to do with other factors.

Indeed, the decision to cancel Colbert – an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump – came just days before the Trump administration approved Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Ellison’s Skydance media company. The cancellation was also announced weeks after Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Trump’s White House rival, Kamala Harris, which the company claimed was unrelated to the merger.

After Paramount canceled the late-night show and said Colbert would be leaving the network, CBS staffers told The Independent that they didn’t believe the company’s claim of a “financial decision”, and instead saw it as a continuation of the “Trump shakedown” that had begun with the settlement.

The demise of Colbert’s show is part of a Democratic-led investigation into the merger, and whether Ellison and Paramount violated anti-bribery statutes. Besides the cancellation of the show, which was cheered by Trump and his handpicked FCC chairman Brendan Carr, House Democrats are also looking into the 60 Minutes settlement; Trump’s claim that he struck a “side deal” with Ellison; and pre-merger concessions that Skydance gave to the FCC.

Since officially taking over Paramount in August, Ellison has come under fire from CBS News staffers over their belief that he “lied” to them after his pledge not to “politicize” the network.

With the president repeatedly heaping praise on David Ellison - whose father is Oracle founder and top Trump ally, the billionaire Larry Ellison - much of the newsroom has been “literally freaking out” over the CEO's latest moves impacting CBS News, feeling that he’s pushing the network to the right to appease the White House.

After hiring a former Trump appointee and conservative think tank leader to serve as the network’s ombudsman and revamping its Sunday news show’s editing rules following complaints from the White House, David Ellison announced last week that he had hired Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief and purchased her anti-woke digital outlet ,The Free Press, for $150 million.

While Weiss has already caused some staffers to literally roll their eyes and compare her to Elon Musk during her first week at the helm, at least one senior news executive has already decided to resign amid the flurry of changes at the Tiffany Network.