Judge Judy has revealed her harsh thoughts on the abrupt cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on CBS.
When asked by a TMZ reporter about her reaction to Colbert being cancelled, the 82-year-old court-show star said, ‘I have very little reaction. When a show loses money, it gets cancelled.’
When asked by the reporter if she was aware of the fact that some people are attributing the show’s cancellation to Donald Trump, she answered: ‘I hear a lot of things. CBS is in the business of making money.’
‘They gotta do what they gotta do! Otherwise your shareholders are gonna sue you.’
Sharing her advice to Colbert, she said: ‘Rewire. You’ll find something fun to do. I did, and I’m much older than you are.’
Judge Judy, whose real name is Judith Sheindlin, did 25 seasons of her show, with the series ending on July 23, 2021. Sheindlin has since suggested that she decided to leave amidst her own rising tensions with CBS.
However, her reign in daytime TV continues to this day. In April 2024, CBS renewed its package of vintage Judge Judy episodes and the first-run court show Hot Bench through 2026.
Sheindlin’s brutal message comes days after Colbert’s dramatic departure from The Late Show on CBS was announced on July 17.
The show is set to finish for good in May 2026.
Judge Judy, whose real name is Judith Sheindlin, did 25 seasons of her show, with the series ending on July 23, 2021. The judge has suggested that she decided to leave amidst rising tensions with CBS
Sheindlin’s, brutal message comes days after Colbert’s dramatic departure from The Late Show on CBS was announced on July 17
Paramount, the parent company of CBS, decided to cancel the late–night talk show – which Colbert has hosted for 22 years – due to financial pressures in the late–night television landscape.
However, Colbert – a comic who hasn’t been shy in his criticism of the president and his administration – along with others, have linked the cancellation to Trump.
About a week after CBS announced that it was cancelling The Late Show, federal regulators approved entertainment conglomerate Paramount’s $8–billion merger with Skydance Media.
The media company is owned by David Ellison – son of Oracle co–founder, Larry Ellison (who is the second–richest person in the world).
Jon Stewart was among those to criticize the decision, ‘The shows that you now seek to cancel, censor and control … a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those shows,’ the comedian noted on The Daily Show, which airs on Paramount-owned Comedy Central. ‘That’s what made you that money.’
Colbert himself warned that, ‘for the next 10 months, the gloves are off’.
In one monologue, Colbert mocked Trump’s reaction to the cancellation of his show, ‘On Friday, Donald Trump posted “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.” How dare you sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism: Go f*** yourself.’
On Tuesday, he opened with, ‘It’s a great day to be me because I am not Donald Trump,’ Colbert said, before diving into Trump’s involvement with the Epstein files. ‘All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t hide who Dumpty humped with his friend,’ he quipped.
Further support for Colbert came from hosts on The View, with co-host Sunny Hostin calling the CBS firing a sign of ‘the dismantling of our democracy’.
‘If it is political, then everyone be concerned, people on the right should be concerned,’ she said. ‘People on the left should be concerned, because if it is political, this is the dismantling of our democracy, the dismantling of our Constitution.’
She suggested Colbert – whose show airs on a privately-owned network – was losing his First Amendment right to free speech.
‘The First Amendment is the First Amendment for a reason, that is freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to speak truth to power. If that is taken away, if the comedians are being attacked, it means the Constitution is being dismantled,’ she claimed.
An industry expert has even predicted that the drama surround the cancellation of The Late Show will lead to Colbert finally winning an Emmy after nine years of nominations.
Steven Zeitchik, senior editor of technology and politics at The Hollywood Reporter, argued in a new piece that Colbert’s defiant stance against the Trump administration will sway the voting body at the Television Academy.
