In yet another late-night Truth Social rant aimed at media personalities he wants to see gone from his television, the leader of the free world fumed about the “sick rumor” that NBC had given “insecure child” Seth Meyers a contract extension.
It would appear, however, that Donald Trump hasn’t been keeping up on the entertainment trades, as the NBC star signed a four-year extension last year to remain host of Late Night with Seth Meyers. The late-night comedy show, which debuted in 2014, is set to run through at least 2028.
“There is a sick rumor going around that Fake News NBC extended the contract of one of the least talented Late Night television hosts out there, Seth Meyers,” the president raged in an early Wednesday morning post on his social media site.
“He has no Ratings, Talent, or Intelligence, and the Personality of an insecure child,” Trump added. “So, why would Fake News NBC extend this dope’s contract. I don’t know, but I’ll definitely be finding out!!!”
The media-obsessed president’s tirade comes weeks after he gloated about longtime critic Stephen Colbert’s cancellation, which occurred just days before the Trump administration approved the $8.4 billion merger between CBS’s parent company Paramount and Skydance Media.
Last month’s announcement that CBS would part ways with Colbert next year and wrap up the decades-old Late Show, despite the program being the top-rated late-night show on broadcast television, immediately raised concerns that Paramount was currying favor with the president to push through the merger.
While Paramount has insisted that the cancellation was a “purely financial” decision due to the show reportedly losing $40 million annually, critics – including CBS staffers, Colbert and his late-show cohorts – have pushed back on those claims. Additionally, House Democrats are now investigating Paramount over the circumstances surrounding the merger and whether the company violated anti-bribery laws, with the $16 million paid to Trump to settle a “meritless” CBS News lawsuit also coming under intense scrutiny.
Besides cheering on the demise of Colbert, who has relentlessly mocked the president over the years, Trump has also publicly called for other late-night stars to lose their jobs as he continues to exert increased pressure on media conglomerates. Specifically, he has targeted ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, who hosts NBC’s The Tonight Show.
“The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes and, shortly thereafter, [Jimmy] Fallon will be gone,” Trump posted right after Colbert’s cancellation was announced. “These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it!”
Trump hasn’t stopped there, either. Earlier this month, he reiterated his desire to see the networks fire both Kimmel and Fallon, saying they have “no talent” while asserting that it was essentially a sure thing that they would be canceled in short order.
“They’re next. They’re going to be going,” he exclaimed at a press conference. “I hear they’re going to be going. I don’t know, but I would imagine because they’d get – you know, Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon.”
Despite the president’s public push for broadcast networks to rid themselves of late-night comedy shows that regularly skewer him on air, which has seen Trump’s handpicked FCC chairman Brendan Carr add more fuel to the fire, Meyers has continued to take aim at Trump.
“You can see how detached from reality this press conference was in the way Trump talked about D.C. like it was a dystopian hellhole in a steampunk novel,” Meyers, mocking Trump’s Washington, D.C. takeover, said this month. “So clearly what happened was he fell asleep watching Fox News, rolled over on the remote, accidentally changed the channel to HBO, woke up, saw ‘Mad Max – Fury Road’ – thought it was still the news.”
As for Meyers’ status with NBC, the network announced in May 2024 that the Saturday Night Live alum had been re-signed through 2028 and also had his deal extended with Universal Studio Group.
“As part of the agreement, Meyers’ production company Sethmaker Shoemeyers, which he runs with Late Night showrunner Mike Shoemaker, will produce content across NBCUniversal platforms after extending its deal with the studio,” Deadline reported at the time.
Meyers also told Deadline that he was “not in any way, shape, or form bored with doing this,” adding that “thanks to the luxury of hours you can fill in a week,” there was “always room for reinvention.”
Currently, there are no reports about a fresh round of negotiations between Meyers and the network.
