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.

CBS is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution in a changing media landscape and removing from air one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent and persistent late-night critics.