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Stephen Colbert might be off CBS’s late-night schedule, but he won’t be off New Yorkers’ radar anytime soon. Today, September 8, MoveOn is staging a very New York protest-slash-celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—and to rail against CBS’s sudden cancellation of the top-rated late-night show.
The hook is a Colbert lookalike contest where bespectacled superfans compete to see who can best channel the host’s trademark arched eyebrow and deadpan delivery. Judges include a few surprise celebrity names, and prizes will be doled out alongside plenty of Colbert-inspired swag.
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The afternoon kicks off at 1:30pm at Sacco Pizza on Ninth Avenue, where lookalikes will square off over slices and satire. At 2:30pm, things get loud: Local 802 AFM musicians will lead a drumline parade through Midtown, marching from Sacco to the Ed Sullivan Theater, the very stage Colbert has commanded since 2015. Protest signs, giveaways and cheeky chants are all on the setlist, with organizers promising the energy of a pep rally and the spirit of a First Amendment teach-in.
At 3:45pm, the action shifts a few blocks south to Paramount Global’s headquarters on Broadway. That’s where MoveOn will deliver more than 129,000 petition signatures demanding CBS reverse its decision. The move comes just days after Colbert publicly criticized Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Donald Trump, a payout tied to the former president’s lawsuit over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Colbert called the deal a “big, fat bribe”—and not long after, CBS announced his show would end.
The timing has raised eyebrows (arched or otherwise): Members of Congress, including Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren, have questioned whether corporate capitulation to Trump played a role in the decision. Trump himself seemed to gloat, posting on Truth Social that he “absolutely love[d] that Colbert got fired.”
MoveOn says the stakes are bigger than late-night laughs. “Even the implication that political media figures are being silenced could have a chilling effect on free speech,” the group said in its advisory. With The Late Show still drawing more than 2 million viewers a night, the cancellation feels less like a programming tweak and more like a political flashpoint.
In other words: Expect the parade to be noisy, the signs to be sharp and the Colberts to be legion.