Ex-‘Daily Show’ Correspondent Supports Co-Star Colbert Amid ‘Late Show’ Axing originally appeared on Parade.
Stephen Colbert and fellow comedian Samantha Bee have a couple things in common besides their inherent humor. Not only have they both hosted late-night TV programs, but they’ve also served as standout correspondents on The Daily Show.
Bee, 55, hosted Full Frontal, which aired on TBS from 2016 to 2022. And then there’s Colbert, 61, who’s been all over the news ever since CBS cancelled The Late Show on July 17.
His former Daily Show co-star has since spoken out about the network’s move, which falls under parent company Paramount Global’s umbrella. Bee recently joined the Breaking Bread podcast to share her thoughts with host Tom Papa and take into account the future of late-night TV — and how the pending Paramount merger with Skydance may have played a role in the show’s cancellation.
“I think both things are true and real,” Bee said on the podcast. “These legacy shows, they are hemorrhaging money, with no real end in sight. People are just not tuning in even remotely comparatively to how they used to. People are literally on their phones all the time, for one thing. They don’t need a recap of the day’s events… We’re consuming news media all the time, and I do it, too… But we don’t relax in the same way by watching ‘everybody get together and lay down in your bed’ TV, and watch some jokes and some interviews.”
Bee continued, “That’s true, and it’s also true that when the president of the United States has to give his sign-off on a corporate merger, the thing you can’t do is make jokes about him. He’s a thin-skinned idiot, and we know he’s like a pernicious cancer, and he cares about that stuff.”
Colbert and Bee worked together on The Daily Show before he began hosting The Colbert Report. Bee also spoke about Colbert as a person and called the show’s cancellation “awful.”
“I know so many people who work there,” she told Papa, 56. “I love Stephen. I consider him to be a friend. I think he’s amazing. So shocked, not surprised, I guess.”
Ex-‘Daily Show’ Correspondent Supports Co-Star Colbert Amid ‘Late Show’ Axing first appeared on Parade on Jul 30, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
