This is the joke Stephen Colbert started his Monday night monologue off with, just a few days after the news broke that The Late Show is being cancelled by CBS — shortly after Colbert called out the network's parent company, Paramount, for what he described as "a big fat bribe" paid to President Donald Trump.

Stephen Colbert is not shying away from the fact that The Late Show was canceled. Kicking off Monday’s show with a joke about Trump wanting to change the name of the Washington Commanders NFL team (the “Washington Epsteins”, Colbert suggested), he walked into the Ed Sullivan theater to loud cheers and said “This is going …

In his monologue opening Monday’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ,” Colbert spoke about Trump’s exulting over CBS ‘s sudden decision to axe the show. “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,” the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social on Friday.