\nColbert hosted \u201cThe Late Show\u201d on CBS for more than a decade before signing off last week. CBS<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Later, after remarking that the tiny public-access operation had \u201clost a lot of money making the show tonight,\u201d he deadpanned: \u201cNow I know how CBS felt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He even mocked the network\u2019s streaming struggles while explaining viewers could watch online, saying streaming was something he \u201cpromised not to learn about while I was on CBS\u201d before adding: \u201cEvidently, CBS also decided not to learn about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Monroe special featured appearances from Jack White, Jeff Daniels, Steve Buscemi, Byron Allen and Eminem.<\/p>\n
Unofficial YouTube uploads quickly exploded online \u2014 in some cases outperforming Colbert\u2019s official upload.<\/p>\n
One repost from a channel called \u201cThe Desk\u201d racked up more than 620,000 views, according to Variety, compared with roughly 392,000 views on Colbert\u2019s official page at the time.<\/p>\n
Reisfield said CBS likely backed down because the optics of aggressively policing a sentimental public-access-style farewell weren\u2019t worth the headache \u2014 particularly given Colbert\u2019s ongoing popularity with viewers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the general public, and especially the Colbert fans, feels more affinity and alignment with Colbert than CBS corporate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy guess is in the overall scheme of things, especially since this is a one-off production and the CBS relationship with Colbert is over, someone at corporate decided it wasn\u2019t worth the hassle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reisfield predicted that the comedian could ultimately thrive outside the traditional television system by leveraging his large audience directly online.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a large, dedicated following and can probably launch something successful using social media channels,\u201d Reisfield told The Post. \u201cHe will have to be an entrepreneur as well as a comedian. It\u2019s very doable for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Post has sought comment from Monroe Community Media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS yanked copyright takedown notices targeting uploads of Stephen Colbert\u2019s surprise return to a tiny Michigan public-access TV show in the wake of online backlash. The Paramount-owned network had been issuing the notices against YouTube users who reposted Colbert\u2019s appearance on \u201cOnly in Monroe,\u201d the Monroe Community Media public-access program that the comic famously hosted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2432176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[350605,477167,477166,476493,22653,23844],"class_list":["post-2432175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cbs-studios","tag-copyright-notices","tag-derek-reisfield","tag-only-in-monroe","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-youtube"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/CBS-halts-crackdown-on-Stephen-Colberts-\u2018Only-in-Monroe-public-access.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2432175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2432177,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2432175\/revisions\/2432177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2432175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2432175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2432175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}