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5+ CBS Shows That Could’ve Been Canceled Instead of Stephen Colbert’s

CBS' parent company, Paramount Global, could have canceled without raising questions about political motivations

Maddy Sperling July 31, 2025 4 min read

Stephen Colbert is the host of CBS' The Late Show/Photo credit: Screenshot from CBS

During his opening monologue on an episode of his talk show earlier this month, Stephen Colbert announced his Late Show would be having its final season.

The 32-year-old franchise that began with David Letterman in 1993 is set to end in May 2026. Several Congressional Democrats have voiced concerns over potential political motivations due to Colbert’s recent commentary on CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global.

Earlier this month, when Paramount agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview, Colbert dubbed it a “big fat bribe” to secure the administration’s approval for the conglomerate’s multibillion-dollar merger with the movie studio Skydance.

Paramount, which closed successfully merged with Sky Dance with the help of the Trump administration last week, called the axing of Colbert a “purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

To be fair, late night has struggled in the era of streaming. As Jon Stewart, Colbert’s longtime colleague and friend said on The Daily Show last week, “late night TV is a struggling financial model; we’re all basically operating a Blockbuster inside a Tower Records.”

Being a media conglomerate in this ever-changing entertainment industry, late night’s incremental decline in popularity is the least of Paramount’s financial concerns. Disney and NBCUniversal have to adapt to the same changes in the industry, but Kimmel, Fallon, and Meyers all still have jobs.

Following its merger with AT&T, WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) was routinely lambasted by John Oliver on his HBO late show, Last Week Tonight, but “business daddy” still provides the show with enough money to rebrand a minor-league baseball team for a bit.

Paramount+ has yet to have any breakout original hits, so let’s focus on trimming the fat. By the way, you won’t find any Young Sheldon hate here. 1.) The show ended, and its spin-off, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, has an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 2.) I met Lain Armitage at a Caps game, and he was so nice to me, even though I drunkenly yelled “hey, it’s young Sheldon” at him.

Big Brother

Just let it die. Unless you plan to give the houseguests alcohol or cast people with actual personalities, just let it die. Julie Chen Moonves’ husband resigned in disgrace as CBS CEO in 2018. No one is forcing you to keep this show alive. In fact, most of the fans who still watch want it to end.

“I think you need to cancel big brother @paramountplus,” one shared on X, fka Twitter, as another added, “I think they should cancel those big brother shows.”

CSI/NCIS spin-offs

Similar to The Late Show, the CSI and NCIS franchises are a part of the CBS brand. CBS currently has four CSI/NCIS spin-offs with fewer than 4 seasons. If it were announced they were canceled, most people would be surprised that they existed in the first place. Here’s a current list of running CSI and NCIS spin-offs that could have easily been dropped without any backlash.

CSI: Origins
CSI: Sydney
CSI: Hawaii
NCIS: Vegas

FBI spin-offs

You don’t need two. Pick one and move on.

Note: this is not to say that CBS should get rid of all its spin-offs. Two of its most popular shows are spin-offs of spin-offs— Elsbeth (a spin-off of The Good Fight, which was a spin-off of The Good Wife) and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (a spin-off of Young Sheldon, which is a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory). Also, Paramount should keep making Yellowstone spin-offs or whatever Taylor Sheridan wants.

Speaking of identical shows…

Even their thumbnails are extremely similar. Again, pick one and move on.

Any scripted cop dramas that aren’t produced by Dick Wolf or feature a quirky lead detective…

According to its website, CBS has three more law enforcement dramas in the works, Boston Blue, CIA, and Sheriff County. Obviously, none are produced by Dick Wolf because he’s with NBC. And, none feature a quirky lead who annoys their boss and colleagues with their non-traditional methods, but always solves the crime. So, Matlock and Watson can stay, but for the love of god, make a show about something else.