Stephen Colbert Trolls His Own Corporate Bosses With A Biting Reality Check

Stephen Colbert got in a good-natured dig at his own corporate overlords on Wednesday with a joke about Paramount+, the streaming service that carries CBS and other content, including “The Late Show.”

Colbert noted that streaming leader Netflix was suddenly struggling after reporting a loss in subscribers. One reason: Shows that used to stream on Netflix are increasingly being pulled from the service and placed onto other platforms, like Paramount+, which promises viewers “a mountain of entertainment.”

Colbert pointed to “Star Trek” as a prime example.

“That used to be on Netflix. Now it’s exclusively on Paramount+,” he said. “Paramount+: A mountain of reruns we never thought you’d pay for.”

Get more of his take on the streaming wars in his Wednesday night monologue:

Paramount+ had about 32.8 million subscribers by the end of 2021, according to CNET, putting it well behind Netflix (221.8 million) and Disney+ (129.8 million). It’s also behind Hulu (45.3 million), but well ahead of Peacock, which had 9 million paid subscribers.