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US regulators have greenlit Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global, but only after securing assurances that the merged company will comply with Trump administration guidelines regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr explained that the clearance was contingent upon "written commitments" from Skydance to guarantee that the new company's news and entertainment programming "will embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum."
Clearance of the acquisition follows about a week after the CBS network, a Paramount unit, said "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," a staple of late-night US television, will end in 2026.
The comedian had blasted Paramount's $16 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump as "a big fat bribe" to win approval of the merger with Skydance. CBS said in a statement the cancellation was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," and was "not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount."
Paramount reached the settlement with Trump this month in a lawsuit the entertainment giant had described as meritless.
Trump had sued Paramount for $20 billion last year, alleging that CBS News' "60 Minutes" news program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.
Colbert said on Thursday the cancellation was not just the end of his show but the end of the decades-old "Late Show" franchise, which has been broadcast continuously on CBS since 1993 and was previously hosted by David Letterman.
Trump celebrated the cancellation, writing on his Truth Social platform, "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings."
Trump's political opponents and other critics drew attention to the timing of the decision. "CBS canceled Colbert's show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump -- a deal that looks like bribery," Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media platform X.
Colbert, once a regular on Comedy Central, made use of humor in his incisive political commentary and succeeded Letterman as the host of "The Late Show" in 2015.
