Why was Colbert canceled?
And the 'Zelda' movie finds its leads
CBS is ending The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in May 2026
And the Daily Show might be next. After 11 years, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is coming to a close. CBS is retiring the series at the end of the next TV season, in May 2026.
The network put out a statement explaining why it came to this decision, “We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire ‘The Late Show’ franchise” in May of 2026. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.
This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The Late Show has been an institution on CBS since 1993, when the network convinced David Letterman to leave NBC and directly compete with the Tonight Show. But as linear TV continues to decline, it was only a matter of time until funding ran out for these expensive late night shows.
Variety says there’s also been speculation that The Daily Show will be canceled as Paramount is in the process of being acquired by Skydance Media, run by David Ellison.
Jimmy Kimmel and Elizabeth Warren go off on CBS for canceling Colbert
In response to Colbert’s cancellation a number of famous figures have spoken out. Jimmy Kimmel wrote on Instagram, “Love you Stephen. Fuck you and all your Sheldons CBS.”
Judd Apatow wrote, “My admiration and appreciation for you is bottomless. Excited to see what other brilliance you put into the world. ❤️,” Rachel Zegler said . “I am extremely sad. I adore you, Stephen,” Adam Scott commented “ “Love you Stephen. This is absolute bullshit.” Andy Cohen said on his show “it’s a sad day for late-night television, It’s a sad day for CBS.”
But what really caught my eye was Elizabeth Warren’s tweet. Warren opened in an investigation in May into whether Paramount Global, which owns CBS, was engaging in bribery with Trump for the approval of the Skydance merger.
She wrote Thursday, “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump a deal that looks like bribery. America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”
The Legend of Zelda movie has cast its two leads
And not, Hunter Schaffer isn’t playing Zelda. In case you’re not aware Nintendo and Sony are in development on a live action movie based on the iconic video game series The Legend of Zelda. Casting has been underway for a while now and there were rumors recently that Euphoria actress Hunter Schaffer might have been considered for the princess herself.
But earlier this week, Nintendo announced the actual stars and released two photos of them in character it seems. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will be Link. He’s an English actor best known for voicing Pinocchio in Robert Zemeckis’s live action Disney remake and he played Miles on Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. While Bo Bragason has been cast as Zelda. She’s also English and is best known for Three Girls, The Jetty, and Renegade Nell.
Bryan Cranston is taking a stand after the movie he just worked on stiffed the cast and crew
Have you heard about the situation with Lone Wolf? This upcoming indie thriller starring Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone started filming last winter. But due to a $2 million dollar funding gap, production had to abruptly stop in February. And according to Deadline, 5 months later, many cast and crew members still haven’t been fully paid.
And so Cranston is now saying he will not go back to set nor promote the movie until “every cast and crew member is paid back in full.” Cranston is not a producer on the movie, just a hired actor. He explained in a statement to Deadline, “I’m distressed that this has caused so much grief and distrust, and so sorry that this crew (which was fantastic) were not treated with the respect they deserved.”
The film’s producers and financiers are reportedly working to close the gap and Cranston believes that the funding will come through because they only have a few scenes left to shoot, and “they’re vital to the story.”
He explained, “I really believe that the producers will manage these difficult times by making everyone whole, and we’ll finish the film.” But he concluded his statement with, “Man, what a mess.” Yeah, I’ll say. Hopefully him speaking out publicly gets everyone paid.
The author of I Know What You Did Last Summer would probably hate the new sequel
And for good reason. From Hollywood’s perspective, it makes sense that they made a new I Know What You Did Last Summer. The 1997 original was a decent-sized hit for an R rated film at the time, grossing $125.3 million dollars off a $17 million budget. It would spawn 2 sequels, one in theaters and one direct to video.
But what people forget is that the franchise is based on a 1973 YA suspense novel by Lois Duncan. That was NOT a slasher story. It still had the plot of 4 teens trying to cover up a deadly accident, but they weren’t getting violently picked off one by one.
And in 2002, author Lois Duncan said she was “appalled” that her story was turned into a teen slasher, because her own daughter, Kait, was murdered in 1989 at the age of 18. Duncan is quoted as saying "As the mother of a murdered child, I don't find violent death something to squeal and giggle about."
The circumstances around her daughter’s death went unsolved for decades and Duncan ultimately wrote a nonfiction book detailing the ordeal called “Who Killed My Daughter?“ Lois Duncan passed away in 2016, six years before her daughter’s killer finally came forward in 2022. He is now serving 45 years in prison.