US television network CBS has announced The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end after the upcoming broadcast season.

The show will be on air until May 2026, and will not be replaced after it wraps up.

CBS executives have released a statement saying finances are at play.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” the statement read.

“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

US media is reporting that CBS’s parent company, Paramount, is seeking approval from the US Federal Communications Commission for a merger with Skydance Media in a deal worth $US8.4 billion ($129 billion).

Paramount also agreed this month to settle a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump over an interview with his Democratic challenger in the 2024 presidential race — former vice-president Kamala Harris — that CBS’s 60 Minutes program broadcast in October.

In a scathing monologue delivered on Monday, local time, Colbert said he was “offended” and joked that the technical name in legal circles for the deal was “big fat bribe”.

Colbert is often quite critical of Mr Trump on his show.

He told his audience of the cancellation of his show that aired on Thursday.

California Democratic senator Adam Schiff taped a segment for the show and took to X, suggesting the show’s cancellation may be due to political reasons.

“If Paramount and CBS ended The Late Show for political reasons, the public deserves to know. And deserves better,” he wrote.

The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert as winning his time slot, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes.

Nielsen also reported Colbert’s late-night show was the only one to gain viewers so far this year.

The Late Show was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show this week for the sixth time.

ABC/Wires