Audience members at Stephen Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show have lashed out at the talk show’s nemesis, President Donald Trump.
Colbert ends his 11-year run on the CBS late-night show on Thursday night. CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show in July last year, just three days after Colbert, 62, slammed the network’s MAGA-friendly parent company, Paramount, for its $16 million settlement with Trump.
Trump, who turns 80 next month, had repeatedly insulted Colbert on social media, but distanced himself from the axing at the time.
“Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night,” he posted on Truth Social last year. “That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!”
However, fans from Colbert’s final studio audience at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York had other ideas.
“It’s heartbreaking to see how one man can silence a whole nation,” Joshua McGehee told CNN.
“When Colbert can be silenced for being critical, it puts everyone at tension to be themselves and to speak their minds.”
Alan Tipert told CNN he came from Georgia “to witness the death of free speech.”
He added, “Everybody knows you don‘t cancel the number one show in late night because it‘s not making money. You do it because you don‘t like what he‘s saying. It just doesn‘t make sense.”
Citing the number of subscribers to The Late Show’s YouTube channel, Tipert said “It’s 11 million followers you’re going to set on fire.“
One woman outside the theatre told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight of the reason behind the show’s demise, “It’s fascism, basically.”
The show’s producer, identified as Brent, told viewers that “everyone is blaming Trump and fascism.”
Another audience member claimed that “the moment our government is controlling the press and media we have now entered into fascism.”
She added, “People, as important and special as Stephen, are taken off the air because of what feels to be politics is very, very disappointing [and] scary.”
Another woman noted “the desire to quell any and all opposition... that’s fascist.”
One man noted Colbert’s axing was due to “a cancel culture, which is so funny, how the world turned on that.”
Another man said, “This is what these people voted for, and I hope they learn their lesson, because pretty soon they’re all about to be f---ed.”
Members of the audience were also asked whether they believed CBS’s decision to pull the show was a business or political decision.
“There was absolutely no business decision involved in this,” one woman stated, adding, “You would have to have a lobotomy to not realize what occurred.”
Variety also interviewed fans outside the theater, with one woman stating, “I was not very happy with CBS at all. He should be able to say what he says and not have backlash from the president.”
Another woman said when you “upset people in power there unfortunately are consequences... I think as a society we’re going backwards in terms of freedom of speech.”
“It’d be crazy for the President of the United States to waste his time on late night comedians,” another woman noted.
Two fans, dressed in Colbert shirts celebrating the final episode, said the host’s “intelligence is in stark contrast to the powers that be.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and CBS for comment.
