CBS is forced to pay a fine after Stephen Colbert‘s final The Late Show antic.
After more than three decades on the air, the network decided to end the popular talk show as its host’s contract wrapped up after an 11-year run in the final stretch of the 2025-2026 TV cycle. When the news was first announced, a massive backlash immediately followed — something that barely died down during the final year of the show’s run. Unfortunately, despite campaigns that were supported by both fans and his peers to keep the show on the air, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert eventually wrapped up.
Per CBS’s official reason, The Late Show‘s cancellation was purely a business decision, with the move supposedly going to save the company money, as it was supposedly in the negative. Meanwhile, critics pointed out that it was nothing more than politically-motivated, as Colbert has been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump. While the cancellation stuck and Colbert delivered a mostly joyous final show on May 21, 2026, the finale included one moment that put CBS in legal trouble.
As revealed in Lee Mendelson Film Productions‘s new announcement, the organization and CBS completed “a licensing agreement with CBS for the use of Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” in the final broadcast of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” For context, a segment of the May 21 outing featured Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine playing “Lucy and Linus” as the host explained how LMFP has been enforcing stricter laws when it came to copyrighting their music. The amount of the fine wasn’t revealed in the brief, but it was shared that the proceeds were donated to Chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen.
What makes this new revelation more humorous, at least for Colbert and his supporters, is that he made clear that it was something that didn’t get permission from CBS, and was done in the hopes that the network would be penalized for the illegal use of the song. At that time, the host said, “Oh no. I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!” Weeks later, that came to fruition.
This marked the second time that Colbert posted a win against CBS since The Late Show‘s end. Previously, the network bent its licensing rules for the host and comedian’s YouTube channel after it posted the full episode of his Only in Monroe on a public access station in Michigan. While they technically had the rights to the hilarious episode, CBS allowed the reposting of the said content, which made it easily accessible for anyone who wanted to check it out online.
Stephen Colbert has yet to announce his next primary project after hosting The Late Show for over a decade. He is co-writing the upcoming Lord of the Rings live-action feature film, The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, which is a great endeavor for him, considering how much he loves that franchise. That said, fans are still awaiting news of his potential return to the small screen.