Fans React to Colbert ‘Late Show’ Cancellation With Puzzlement and Anger

Many questioned the timing of and motivation for the announcement, noting that Mr. Colbert hosted the most-watched show in late night television.

The first people to hear that CBS was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” reacted to the news loudly, and viscerally, with a chorus of “No!” that turned into a sustained round of boos.

They were sitting in the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown Manhattan when an emotional Mr. Colbert announced the decision at the conclusion of the taping of his Thursday night show.

Among those who were watching was Claire DeSantis, 29, who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After the show concluded, she said, Mr. Colbert told the audience there would be an alternate taping of the cold open.

“I thought it was going to be a fun surprise,” she said.

Instead, Mr. Colbert stumbled a few times on the opening line — “Oh hey, everybody!” — before delivering the announcement about the cancellation in a single take. Ms. DeSantis, who does not regularly watch the show and wanted to go for the experience, said she cried, but not everyone in the audience was in tears as they left the theater. She called her mother and roommate to tell them what had happened.

“I thought this was a legacy show,” Ms. DeSantis said. “I was just really surprised that it’s just going away completely.”

Online, fans and public figures reacted with a mix of puzzlement and indignation. Many noted that the announcement came weeks after CBS’s corporate parent, Paramount, agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.” The president’s lawsuit had been seen as a potential hurdle to a multibillion-dollar sale of Paramount to the Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.

In his monologue on Monday, Mr. Colbert described the settlement payment as “a big, fat bribe.”

“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,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote on social media. “America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”

The comedian Michael Ian Black wrote, “Congrats to Stephen Colbert for never bending the knee.”

Other fans quibbled with the description of the move by CBS officials as “purely a financial decision,” noting that Mr. Colbert hosted the most-watched late night television show.

Andy Richter, the comedian who for years served as the sidekick to Conan O’Brien, one of Mr. Colbert’s late night rivals, wrote that Mr. Colbert “is a profoundly good and deeply talented man with a great staff and an excellent show. They all deserve better.”

Addressing Mr. Colbert in a comment on social media, the filmmaker and producer Judd Apatow wrote: “My admiration and appreciation for you is bottomless. Excited to see what other brilliance you put into the world.”

After the “Late Show” audience had gone home, other fans of Mr. Colbert found themselves outside the Ed Sullivan Theater trying to process the news.

Among them was David Brown, who said he had been a fan of Mr. Colbert’s since middle school. The “Late Show” cancellation made him “immediately very sad,” he said.

“Particularly in the last 10 years since he took over, I think he’s done a really great job of maintaining his sharp political commentary that he was known for,” Mr. Brown said. “Not to have his voice daily is going to be a big loss.”

David Nevins was having dinner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Thursday night when he got a notification that “The Late Show” had been canceled. Without a second thought, he got on the subway and went to the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Mr. Nevins, who is originally from New Hampshire and now lives in New York, said he was raised on Mr. Colbert’s show. Watching it, he said, was a big part of his relationship with his father.

“Reading that headline activated a lightning strike,” he added, referring to the cancellation news, “and I knew I just had to come here and bear witness.”

He acknowledged that the late-night television format was in flux, but even so, the cancellation of Mr. Colbert’s show “defies logic,” he said.

“It breaks truth, and he was the arbiter of truth,” he said. “He is. Colbert is the staple.”

Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.