CBS said it is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” at the end of the upcoming television season in May, a casualty of industry changes that have dealt a crippling blow to advertising revenue.

Colbert announced the news to his audience Thursday during a show taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. In a clip posted to Instagram, crowd members gasped, then started booing. A few people shouted: “No!”

“Yeah, I share your feelings,” Colbert said.

He said he only learned of the move Wednesday.

“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS,” Colbert said. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

Colbert, 61, has hosted the show for a decade.

After a rocky start, Colbert found his sea legs and soon eclipsed longtime broadcast late-night leader NBC with his signature humor and sharp takes on political and cultural hot buttons.

Colbert has long been a star within CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, rising to fame on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” He hosted the satirical “The Colbert Report” from 2005 to 2014 on Comedy Central, playing a caricature of a conservative political pundit.

Once on CBS, Colbert won loyal viewers with his searing commentaries on President Donald Trump and his actions — even before Trump was elected in 2016.

In recent weeks, Colbert skewered his own company for its decision to cave to Trump by settling the president’s lawsuit over “60 Minutes” edits, a case that most First Amendment experts called frivolous. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million, with most of that going to Trump’s future presidential library.

The dramatic decision to end a franchise that has helped shaped pop culture was stunning to some. CBS launched its late-night block in 1993 with David Letterman after he defected from NBC.

Colbert’s show has ranked No. 1 among broadcasters in late night for nine consecutive seasons.

“Late Night” averaged nearly 1.9 million viewers per night for the second quarter of the year, according to Nielsen data. ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” pulled in 1.5 million viewers and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” averaged about 1 million viewers.

But while Colbert leads among the broadcast networks, Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” draws a larger audience.

With delayed viewing factored in, Colbert’s show averaged nearly 2.5 million viewers for the season.

CBS’ decision to pull the plug underscores a dramatic shift in audience behavior from just a decade ago when Letterman passed the baton to Colbert.

Younger viewers have little interest in waiting until almost bedtime to watch a 60-minute show.

Instead, they watch short comedic clips on TikTok, YouTube and other apps on their phones. Network efforts to slice and post digestible clips of late-night shows on YouTube and other platforms, in a bid for greater viewership and ad revenue, has gone only so far.

Colbert’s show had been losing money, according to knowledgeable insiders. The steep advertising revenue drop began about three years ago, following pandemic disruptions.

“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks and other top executives said in a joint statement. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

David Ellison’s Skydance Media is waiting for federal approval to buy Paramount, an $8 billion deal that is expected to usher in a new wave of cost-cutting.

“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable,” said Cheeks, along with CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf. “We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.”

More than 200 people work on Colbert’s show and their fate, beyond next spring, is unclear.

“I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,” Colbert said. “I’m so grateful to the Tiffany network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course, I’m grateful to you, the audience, who have joined us every night.”

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