The Daily Show’s Michael Kosta proved two things on the Monday edition of his Tennis Anyone podcast, so named because in his previous life, Kosta was a professional tennis player. First, apparently everybody has a podcast, but more importantly, the late night shows have an oversized view of their own self-importance, as Kosta demanded CBS take a loss on Stephen Colbert’s show because he is needed to “call the bullshit out” and that by canceling him, CBS is kowtowing to President Trump and his habit of acting like “authoritarian leaders.”
Kosta was not happy with CBS’s justification for the cancelation, “Do you know how much bullshit CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox put outs that loses money? That all loses money. Every once in a while something doesn't. Flip through Netflix, look through all those thumbnails, 90 percent lose money.”
He then claimed that CBS didn’t even try to save the show, “If this was a financial decision and it was important to you. And this is the thing: it might have been a financial decision that wasn't important to you, but if this was a financial decision and it was important to you, you would cut back costs, you would tell Stephen, ‘Here's what we gotta do. Your show's important to us,’ and you would accept less profit or even breaking even or even losing a little bit of money because it's important.”
TV is not a streaming library where one popular movie or show can carry the whole platform. There is only one thing on CBS at 11:30 p.m. However, Kosta then claimed Colbert provides a public service of such importance, CBS should accept the losses that come with it, “It's important to have people and shows that call the bullshit out. And he called the bullshit out. And the problem is the bullshit canceled the show.”
Because CBS apparently does not view Colbert as a necessary part in the fight to save democracy, Kosta mused that they must be trying to appease Trump, “So I think they're kowtowing to Trump. I think everybody is, which is what authoritarian leaders want and do and be careful, everybody. If you feel like ‘this isn't my industry, this doesn't affect me,’ it's coming. It's coming to everybody. They silence their critics. And what's so difficult and challenging about this is this isn't Donald Trump saying, ‘Stephen Colbert, you're fired.’ But he's doing it through legal pressure for our CEOs and companies that require him to then do his dirty work for him.”
If this was tennis, Kosta served the ball straight into the net. The problem for him is that when James Corden quit, CBS replaced The Late Late Show with the cheaper After Midnight. When Taylor Tomlinson quit that show, it decided not to replace her and cancelled the show altogether. If Kosta thinks CBS should’ve simply cut costs to run a smaller loss, that’s his opinion, but it is a fact that democracy will survive without The Late Show and that cancelling it fits a recent pattern of behavior for CBS that predates the lawsuit with Trump.
Here is a transcript for the July 21 show:
Tennis Anyone with Michael Kosta
7/21/2025
MICHAEL KOSTA: Do you know how much bullshit CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox put outs that loses money? That all loses money. Every once in a while something doesn't. Flip through Netflix, look through all those thumbnails, 90 percent lose money. If this was a financial decision and it was important to you. And this is the thing: it might have been a financial decision that wasn't important to you, but if this was a financial decision and it was important to you, you would cut back costs, you would tell Stephen, “Here's what we gotta do. Your show's important to us,” and you would accept less profit or even breaking even or even losing a little bit of money because it's important.
It's important to have people and shows that call the bullshit out. And he called the bullshit out. And the problem is the bullshit canceled the show. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. So I think they're kowtowing to Trump. I think everybody is, which is what authoritarian leaders want and do and be careful, everybody. If you feel like “this isn't my industry, this doesn't affect me,” it's coming. It's coming to everybody. They silence their critics. And what's so difficult and challenging about this is this isn't Donald Trump saying, “Stephen Colbert, you're fired.” But he's doing it through legal pressure for our CEOs and companies that require him to then do his dirty work for him.
