Using words like “gutless” and “sad,” David Letterman is skewering CBS for its settling a lawsuit with President Trump and for blaming its decision to end Steven Colbert’s show on financial considerations.

CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, agreed to pay $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Harris. Paramount is in the middle of a sale to Skydance Media that requires government approval.

Three weeks after the settlement, CBS announced it was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” as of May 2026. The network called the move “purely financial,” saying the show is losing millions of dollars.

Mr. Letterman, the original host of the show, doesn’t buy that argument.

“You’re telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday?” Mr. Letterman asks in a podcast that streams on his YouTube channel. “I bet they were losing this kind of money a month ago. I’ll bet they were losing this kind of money six weeks ago. Or they have never been losing money.”

Mr. Letterman questions why the network brass is giving Mr. Colbert another 10 months on the air if the decision is about money. “That’s another huge chunk of money they’re gonna lose, according to them,” Mr. Letterman says. “I don’t think it was money.”

Mr. Letterman describes Mr. Colbert as a “precise, crisp, witty political satirist” who is the face of the network. He thinks network executives canceled the show to make sure the deal with Skydance goes through.

“Look at CBS News. It’s still in business. And I’m not certain that’s a profit center,” Mr. Letterman says.

“I think it’s sad,” Mr. Letterman adds. He also had harsh words for the company’s handling of the lawsuit, describing the settlement with Mr. Trump as “pure cowardice.”

Mr. Letterman says the new owners “don’t want any trouble along the lines of freedom of the press or free speech or freedom of expression. They don’t want to get their hands dirty. They don’t want the government going after them.”

This week, the Federal Communications Commission approved the Paramount sale but claimed the decision had nothing to do with the lawsuit settlement or Mr. Colbert’s show.

The FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, cited Skydance’s pledge to the Trump administration of a commitment to “unbiased journalism,” but said the commission is still investigating a “news distortion complaint” against CBS.

As for Mr. Letterman, he says that one day, “if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this, they’re going to be embarrassed because this is gutless.”