David Letterman has no love for what he calls the “lying weasels” at CBS. He used that term to describe CBS executives while discussing the network’s decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Letterman, who hosted The Late Show for 22 years, doesn’t believe CBS’s stated reasons for canceling the show he created and made famous. A spokesperson for the network told the New York Times this week that it was “unequivocally a financial decision.”
“They don’t share the books with me,” David Letterman told Jason Zinoman of the Times. “All of television seems to have been nicked by digital communication and streaming platforms and on and on. TV may be not the money machine it once was. On the other hand, what about the humanity for Stephen and the humanity of people who love him and the humanity for people who still enjoyed that 11:30 respite?
“He was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to take care of the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?’ I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They’re lying weasels.”
Last year, after the announcement that The Late Show would be coming to an end, David Letterman uploaded a 20-minute supercut of him ripping the network over the years and captioned the video “You can’t spell CBS without BS.”
Now, he says the cancellation of the show that once was his is like “driving by your old neighborhood and realizing that where you used to live, they’re putting up an adult bookstore.”
Who will be replacing Stephen Colbert on CBS?
Last month, CBS announced that Byron Allen had purchased The Late Show with Stephen Colbert time slot.
On May 22, he will be moving back-to-back episodes of Comics Unleashed, which has been airing on CBS at 12:35 a.m. ET, into the slot currently airing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Allen will also continue to lease the time slot after The Late Show and will be airing his comedy game show, Funny You Should Ask.