All eyes were on Jon Stewart Monday night when he spoke for the first time defense of his friend and longtime colleague Stephen Colbert after CBS rocked the late-night world by canceling his show.
“Stephen has been canceled for ‘purely financial reasons,’” Stewart said, making a grimace that made it clear he wasn’t buying it.
“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number one rated network late-night franchise, that’s been on the air for over three decades, is part of what’s making everybody wonder, ‘Was this purely financial?’” Stewart said. “Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger was killing a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president.”
Colbert himself criticized Paramount over the Skydance merger last Monday, claiming the company had offered Trump a “big fat bribe” to keep the merger safe from Trump’s interference. Colbert’s show was canceled three days later.
“I believe CBS lost the benefit of the doubt two weeks prior,” Stewart said, “When they sold out their flagship news program”—60 Minutes—“to pay an extortion fee to said president.”
“Look,” said Stewart, addressing the Paramount executives. “I understand the corporate fear. I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake.“
Stewart continued, “But understand this: Truly, the shows that you now seek to cancel, censor, and control? A not-insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those f—ing shows.“
“That’s what made you that money,” Stewart said. “Shows that say something. Shows that take a stand.”
Stewart argued that Colbert, who he’d praised earlier in his monologue for having “exceeded all expectations in the role,” is someone who CBS and Paramount would be foolish to cut loose, regardless of how much Trump is pressuring them.
Stewart warned network executives, “If you believe you can make yourselves so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless, that you will never again be on the boy king’s radar… Why will anyone watch you?”
“And you are f—ing wrong,” Stewart added. “Do you want to know how impossible it is to stay on Lord Farquaad’s good side?”
He pointed to Trump’s $10B lawsuit threat on Friday against Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News.
“Fox spends 24 hours a day blowing Trump, and it’s not enough,” Stewart joked. He also addressed his own fate at The Daily Show by saying, “I’m not giving in, I’m not going anywhere… I think.”
And in a gospel musical number that closed his nearly 30 minute piece, Stewart summed up his message to the networks like this: “Sack the f— up! … This ain’t the time to shrink. This is the time to fight.”
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