By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — Stephen Colbert gained a little help from his friends and late-night rivals on Monday, his first night back on “The Late Show” since announcing that CBS is ending the legendary show.

NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, HBO’s John Oliver, and Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart were among the faces in the “Late Show” crowd during a spoof of the now-famous “Coldplay cam.”

The fellow comedians didn’t speak and they didn’t have to: Being there was the point.

The “Late Show” cancellation raised concerns about the future of late-night comedy — and about something bigger. Are big TV networks going to keep supporting political satire and free speech at a time when President Trump’s campaign of retribution is rattling corporate America?

“Some people see this show going away as a sign of something truly dire,” Colbert acknowledged Monday night.

“And while I am a big fan of me, I don’t necessarily agree with that statement,” he said. “Because we here at ‘The Late Show’ never saw our job as changing anything other than how you felt at the end of the day.”

He also made some jokes about CBS saying the show was ending for “purely financial” reasons. Through humor, he raised an eyebrow at news reports about the show becoming unprofitable, though he didn’t directly dispute that.

“Folks, I’m going to go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far,” he quipped.

After the “Coldplay cam” spoof, which was led by Lin-Manuel Miranda and “Weird Al” Yankovic, Colbert pretended that CBS had just cancelled the song because it lost money.

The cameos were a testament to Colbert’s long-lasting relationships in the TV industry. Fallon and his NBC colleague Seth Meyers were seated together. Bravo late-night host Andy Cohen sat with his best friend, CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Actors Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald were there with Robert Smigel and his Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

‘Fear and pre-compliance’?

Beyond the partisan arguments about whether anti-Trump comics are funny is a broader fear about institutions caving to Trump and removing room for dissent.

There is a long history of American TV networks giving comics space to poke politicians and even network executives in the eye, despite the potential ramifications. Fans feel that tradition is under threat now.

Outside the “Late Show” studio, the Ed Sullivan Theater, on Monday, pro-Colbert and anti-Trump protesters held up signs criticizing CBS for cancelling the show. One sign read, “Silencing comedians is no joke.” Another read, “Colbert forever.”

Stewart spoke out about it from his own television perch, “The Daily Show,” on Monday night. Both shows are owned by the same company, Paramount Global, which has been in a perilous political position in recent months. Colbert catapulted to fame on Stewart’s show twenty years ago; the two men have remained friends ever since; and Stewart is now an executive producer of Colbert’s “Late Show,” so he has some visibility into the situation.

“If you’re trying to figure out why Stephen’s show is ending, I don’t think the answer can be found in some smoking gun email or phone call from Trump to CBS executives, or in CBS’s QuickBooks spreadsheets on the financial health of late night,” Stewart said on-air.

“I think the answer in the fear and pre-compliance that is gripping all of America’s institutions at this very moment — institutions that have chosen not to fight the vengeful and vindictive actions of our pubic hair-doodling commander in chief,” he said.

Stewart, whose “Daily Show” contract expires at the end of this year, added, “This is not the moment to give in. I’m not giving in! I’m not going anywhere — I think.”

Stewart also had a profane message for Paramount and other media companies: “If you believe, as corporations or as networks, you can make yourselves so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless that you will never again be on the boy king’s radar, why will anyone watch you, and you are f***ing wrong.”

The ‘agonizing’ decision

“The Late Show” has been a cornerstone of the CBS programming schedule for decades, so fans and industry followers were shocked when the network announced its cancellation last Thursday.

Top executives at CBS said it was an “agonizing” decision but one that was unrelated to “other matters happening at Paramount.” In other words, the merger.

Paramount has been attempting to merge with Skydance Media, which means billions of dollars and some big egos are on the line. However, the deal requires approval from the Trump administration, and the review process has been taking longer than usual, which has raised concerns about political interference.

Earlier this month, while Colbert and “The Late Show” were on a mid-summer break, Paramount settled Trump’s legally dubious lawsuit against CBS News by agreeing to pay $16 million toward his future presidential library.

The settlement was widely criticized, and Colbert joined the chorus when he returned from vacation last week, likening the payoff to a “big fat bribe.”

Two days after that telecast, Colbert was informed that CBS was retiring “The Late Show” franchise. The move will take effect next May, when Colbert’s contract expires and the broadcast TV season ends.

Colbert referred to the settlement again on Monday night’s show. He cited the media leaks indicating that the “Late Show” was losing “between $40 million and $50 million a year.”

“Forty million’s a big number,” Colbert said. “I could see us losing $24 million, but where would Paramount have possibly spent the other $16 million… oh, yeah.”

Meantime, the founding host of “The Late Show,” David Letterman, weighed in on the franchise’s retirement on Monday by publishing to his YouTube channel a 20-minute highlight reel of his past jokes about CBS. The video caption read: “You can’t spell CBS without BS.”

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