Stephen Colbert Gives the Middle Finger After Hugging “CBS Evening”'s John Dickerson on His Final Day as Anchor
- - Stephen Colbert Gives the Middle Finger After Hugging “CBS Evening”'s John Dickerson on His Final Day as Anchor
Charlotte PhillippDecember 20, 2025 at 6:26 AM
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Stephen Colbert Gives the Middle Finger to CBS After Hugging CBS Evening's John Dickerson on His Final Day as Anchor -
Stephen Colbert seemingly had a clear message for his and former news anchor John Dickerson's employer, CBS
During Slate's Political Gabfest event on Thursday, Dec. 18, the Late Show host, 61, stuck his middle finger in the air after embracing Dickerson
Dickerson departed CBS Evening News on Thursday, and Colbert's Late Show is set to end in May 2026
Stephen Colbert seemingly has a clear message for his and former news anchor John Dickerson's employer.
During Slate's Political Gabfest event on Thursday, Dec. 18, the Late Show host, 61, is seen making a strong statement as he celebrated fellow CBS employee John Dickerson, whose last day at CBS News was yesterday.
As host David Plotz introduces the panel, including Dickerson and Colbert, whose Late Show is set to end in May 2026, footage shows Colbert getting up from his seat, walking over to hug his friend and former colleague Dickerson, then turning point his middle finger in the air — seemingly aimed at CBS, which canceled The Late Show show in July — to roaring applause.
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In a post to his official Instagram page on Oct. 27, former CBS Evening News co-anchor Dickerson, 57, revealed that he would be stepping away from his position.
“Local news: At the end of this year, I will leave CBS, sixteen years after I sat in as Face the Nation anchor for the first time,” he wrote. “I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me — the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history — and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human. I will miss you.”
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host announced on July 17 that his show would be ending after 10 seasons. He took over the show in September 2015 following David Letterman‘s departure.
"It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS. I'm not being replaced," he said. "This is all just going away. And I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners."
While CBS told PEOPLE in a statement at the time that the choice was "purely a financial” decision, the move came days after Colbert slammed Paramount for giving President Donald Trump $16 million in a settlement, which occurred while the network was in the midst of its Skydance merger that required administration approval before it could move forward. The merger was completed less than a month later on Aug. 7.
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest John Dickerson in 2024.
“It is self-evident that that is damaging to the reputation of the network, the corporation and the news division,” Colbert told GQ in November. “So it is unclear to me why anyone would do that other than to curry favor with a single individual. If people have theories that associate me with that, it’s a reasonable thing to think, because CBS or the corporation clearly did it once. But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to refuse on the other side of the street. Not my problem.”
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“So people can have their theories,” he continued. “I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why that’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to engage in that speculation. I have had a great relationship with CBS.”
Dickerson — who co-anchored alongside Maurice Dubois (who also marked his last day at CBS on Thursday) — also spoke out against the settlement on CBS Evening News Plus in July. “We pride ourselves on our BS detector, so it ought to work on ourselves, too,” he said at the time.
“When it doesn’t, the stakes are real, a loss of public trust, the spread of misinformation,” he added. “The Paramount settlement poses a new obstacle. Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?"
Also during his conversation at the Political Gabfest event, Colbert and Dickerson spoke about what could come next for them after CBS.
When host Plotz asked what's next and suggested they "do something together," both immediately agreed that it was a "great idea," per Slate, as Colbert also said he wanted to use his newfound free time "to learn something that I didn't know before, to do something I've never done before."
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