Stephen Colbert takes a new swipe at CBS in one of his final shows

In one of his final shows before The Late Show ends on May 21, Colbert opened by noting he had only five episodes remaining. He then pivoted to criticism of CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil, who failed to secure a visa to cover President Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

According to The Daily Beast reporting, Dokoupil was forced to cover the historic event from Taipei, Taiwan—over 1,000 miles away—while his competitors at NBC and ABC covered the summit from Beijing without apparent issues. The 45-year-old anchor, who is only five months into his controversial tenure anchoring the primetime CBS show, reportedly faced visa complications that prevented him from traveling to China for the major story.

Colbert highlighted this disparity in his monologue, stating: "All the news teams are on the ground in China to cover this epic and historic summit. All except one." He then delivered a joking critique of CBS News, quipping: "Well, that is disappointing, but it does fit in with their slogan. 'CBS News: when events happen, we're at most one country away."

Dokoupil was hired to anchor CBS Evening News by the network's controversial editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who has publicly expressed her desire to push CBS in a more Trump-friendly direction. The hire has proven contentious, with Dokoupil facing criticism over his editorial approach during his first five months on the job. The visa issue represents another setback for the anchor, who has already faced increasingly dire ratings in the role.

The reason for Dokoupil's visa denial remains unclear. According to Semafor reporting, it is uncertain whether the failure stemmed from a late visa application or some other separate issue. However, the timing proved particularly problematic given that competing news anchors—NBC News's Tom Llamas and ABC News's David Muir—both successfully secured visas and covered the Trump-Xi summit directly from Beijing.

The monologue came during Colbert's final stretch of episodes and continued his pattern of publicly criticizing CBS since his show's cancellation was announced in July 2025. That announcement came mere days after Colbert had criticized his parent company, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit brought by President Trump. Colbert called the $16 million settlement a "big fat bribe."

Although CBS's decision to cancel Colbert was reportedly made before that critical monologue and motivated primarily by financial concerns related to a broader corporate restructuring, critics have characterized the move as another example of the company capitulating to the Trump administration.

Since the cancellation announcement, Colbert has grown increasingly bold in his criticisms of CBS. In February, he called out the network for pressuring him not to air an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. He also criticized CBS for failing to push back against pressure from the Trump administration, stating: "I am grateful to have worked for CBS for the last 11 years. I'm just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies."

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