Stephen Colbert may have revealed what his next move is now the Late Show is over on CBS. At the same time, CBS has absolutely revealed that they were behind Colbert’s May 22 Michigan public access special, the one that aired the day after the long running network late night franchise came to an end.
In the usual online rush to judgement we’ve all become far too used to, a digital firestorm has spread this weekend that the David Ellison owned CBS Studios is sending out takedown notices to try to crush people watching the very low-tech Only in Monroe episode that Colbert hosted in the Great Lakes State the day after his very last (and very very well-watched) Last Show aired.
They are not.
Yes, CBS were sending out takedown notices until earlier today. No, CBS is not trying to suppress Only in Monroe. They actually paid for it.
Like any business, CBS are, or were, trying to protect their assets from being ripped and ripped off — until they got fed up with the whole thing.
“Stephen Colbert’s return to Monroe in the Only in Monroe episode was financed and produced by CBS Studios and was posted on Stephen Colbert’s YouTube channel in collaboration with Monroe Community Media and The Late Show’s”YouTube channels,” a CBS spokesperson said in a statement late Sunday after accusations of censorship and mean-spiritedness broke out across the Internet. “As is our regular practice, we send copyright notices to unauthorized websites that post copyrighted content from CBS and our network/studio talent such as Stephen Colbert. However, for this episode, have decided to waive further enforcement of this standard industry practice until additional review.”
Which is essentially, a still check writing CBS saying F.U. to the haters after months of taking swipes and whacks (many from Colbert himself) for the pink slipping of Colbert and the Late Show franchise last year. Now, was Colbert truly canned in July 2025 because The Late Show cost too much to keep going in the decline late night genre? Was he given nearly a year to leave after mocking CBS and Donald Trump for the former’s $16 million payout to the latter to settle a dubious 60 Minutes lawsuit?
I mean …you decide.
However, with all the speculation of what Colbert will do next besides penning a new Lord of the Rings movie script and whatever that “for this episode” from CBS implies, it seems pretty evident it’s going to happen online one way or another.
Put it this way, the only video on Colbert’s April 21 launched personal YouTube channel is the Only in Monroe video. Pretty safe to bet it won’t remain the only one as Colbert looks set to follow in the steps of other comics and content creators and use the huge viewership of YouTube as at least a partial home.
Fact is YouTube is bigger than network TV and the streamers.
Another fact is, with moves like its deal to be the home of the Oscars starting in 2029, the Google-owned platform is intent on bulking up ever further and adding some of the small screen’s best and brightest to its roster.
On Colbert’s own channel and with Ellison’s CBS footing at least a significant portion of the bill, Only in Monroe is a near perfect flex of timing and execution for both a reset and continuity.
The one-hour Jack White, Eminem, Steve Buscemi and Jeff Daniels starring special, which harks back to Colbert’s Michigan public access appearance in the first week of his Late Show stint in September 2015, has accumulated 409,000 views over the past two days. While Colbert’s YT Channel has 80,500 subscribers as of today, it pales next to some of the views and subscribers some of the sites that were posting their own Only in Monroe video the past several days A.K.A. the sites CBS wanted YT to remove their material from.
Colbert late last week on the very local Only in Monroe explained what he was doing there and took a bite outta Paramount (which look soon to acquire Warner Bros Discovery for $111 billion in a Trump administration fast tracked process). “Since I was last here in Monroe, Michigan, I spent 11 years as the primary host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, which came to an end last night,” the host declared on the bare bones set. “It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV, so I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount.”
He left out that he was grateful to Paramount and CBS for paying for the whole epilogue and prologue of sorts, but that’s why they call it show business isn’t it?
