US regulators approved an $8.4 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, after Paramount settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Donald Trump.
Paramount also canceled The Late Show last week, shortly after host Stephen Colbert called the settlement a “big, fat bribe.”
It’s not the only Paramount show to be critical of the merger: South Park celebrated a new $1.5 billion deal by releasing an episode depicting Trump in bed with Satan and mocking the network for capitulating to his demands.
Some of Paramount’s “biggest stars are openly hostile to both it and the president,” WIRED noted, which may be a problem: Skydance’s owner is a Trump ally and the Federal Communications Commission chair is a Trump appointee.