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CNN News Central
CBS Cancels "The Late Show" Weeks After Settling Trump Lawsuit; Mystery Illness Sickens More Than 140 Passengers and Crew on Cruise Ship; Coldplay "Kiss Cam" Goes Viral and Stirs Up Internet Speculation; Trump Justice Department in Court Today for Epstein Grand Jury Files. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 18, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:09]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The most watched show in late night is being canceled. CBS pulling the plug on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and it's more than just the end of the line for Colbert. It's the end of an era for television. Colbert broke the news to his audience.
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STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST OF "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT", CBS: The network will be ending "The Late Show" in May. And --
(CROWD PROTESTING)
Yeah, I share your feelings. It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of "The Late Show" on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.
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KEILAR: The timing here is noteworthy. Just weeks after CBS' parent company, Paramount settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Trump. CNN's Hadas Gold has details on this.
[13:35:00]
And the pressing question here, Hadas, is this about politics or is this a business decision?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And Brianna, it could be a combination of both because, listen, there is a truth to the fact that the economics of late night TV is changing. These shows are very expensive to make and they just don't make as much money as they used to just a few years ago. And at the same time, you cannot ignore, of course, the politics that this is all happening in. And these decisions are not made in a vacuum.
Now, CBS in a statement has said that it was a purely financial decision. They say it has absolutely nothing to do with the show's performance, content, or other matters happening at the Paramount. At the same time though, Stephen Colbert show is the highest rated late night show on broadcast television. He beats out his competitors, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, in that hour. And it doesn't appear as though Stephen Colbert was given the opportunity to cut costs. It doesn't seem as though he was given the opportunity to go down to just a couple of shows a week, cut the size of his staff or anything like that.
They just said, you're done at the end of May. And then of course, what's happening politically, you mentioned that settlement between President Trump and CBS. This is all happening in the larger context of the fact that CBS' parent company, Paramount, is trying to merge with Skydance. And in order to do that, they need the approval of President Trump's Federal Communications Commission. And so, there is a lot of questions about how that will look going forward.
And there is of course a lot of questions about whether getting rid of one of President Trump's biggest critics in late night television is part of trying to get this deal through. Again, CBS is denying that has anything to do with that, saying it's all about financials. But listen to how Stephen Colbert described the settlement between CBS and President Trump just a couple days ago.
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COLBERT: Unlike the payoffs from ABC and Twitter, Paramount settlement did not include an apology. Instead -- that's good. Instead, the corporation released a statement where they said, you may take our money, but you will never take our dignity. You may, however, purchase our dignity for the low, low price of $16 million. We need the cash. I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles, it's big fat bribe.
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GOLD: And now, Brianna, we have, members of Congress like Senators Warren and Senator Schiff, now questioning whether politics did play a part in this, and there might be potentially some, maybe more questions raised by Capitol Hill as a result of this. Brianna?
KEILAR: Yeah, it's going to be a really interesting late night at CBS until May. I think we know that much. Thank you so much, Hadas Gold. Really appreciate the reporting.
Coming up, an unknown gastrointestinal outbreak -- oh, no -- hitting another cruise ship, the 18th so far this year. That's a number that matches all of last year. So what's behind this?
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[13:41:56]
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This year, a pretty notable jump in outbreaks of mass sickness on cruise ships. The latest happening on board the Navigator of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean International ship on a week-long round trip from Los Angeles to Mexico. Now, the CDC says more than 140 passengers and crew reported being sick during the voyage that ended on July 11th. And while it's still unclear what caused the latest outbreak, most of the previous incidents were caused by norovirus.
This latest one is the 18th outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on cruise ships this year. That's actually the same number of outbreaks in all of 2024 and surpasses the 14 seen in 2023. I'm joined now by Dr. Leana Wen. She's the former Baltimore Health Commissioner and an emergency room physician. Thank you for being here, doctor. I mean, I guess what do you make of this latest outbreak? I mean, we still don't know exactly what caused it.
DR. LEANA WEN, FORMER BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: That's right. We don't know the cause, but we do know that most cases by -- the large majority of cases in the past have been due to norovirus, which is also the number one cause of infectious diarrhea, the number one cause of food-borne illness. Every year in the U.S., 19 to 21 million people contract norovirus and most of them do not contract it on onboard cruise ships. And so, the fact that this is happening on a cruise ship, I suppose I'm not surprised by it, considering that norovirus outbreaks tend to occur in places where lots of people are gathering.
And so, they could happen on board cruise ships, but also in schools and daycare centers and jails. And this is a very contagious illness, one that thankfully causes symptoms that are very unpleasant at the time, but that do tend to go away within one to two days. And most people recover without long-term issues.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, and cruise ships typically try to have very strict protocol in place whenever an outbreak does happen, but sometimes, it's just hard to contain. This is already the 18th outbreak on a cruise ship this year. When you see that number, especially as compared to previous years, what do you think is driving this spike? How are you analyzing these numbers here? Should people be concerned about booking cruises?
WEN: Well, again, I think that you could have food-borne illnesses in many different settings. The vast majority of norovirus cases do not occur on cruise ships, but in other places. And by the way, just to confirm that we do not know yet what exactly was the cause aboard this particular cruise ship. But there was an incidence, for example, in April, where more than 200 people became ill because of norovirus. There have been instance in the past where again, hundreds of people became ill, mostly due to norovirus onboard these cruise ships.
And so, I would say that the good -- there are good precautions that everybody should be taking regardless of whether they're on cruise ships, and that includes very good hand washing. Norovirus actually is not killed by the alcohol based hand sanitizers that we tend to be using. And so, hand sanitizers, although they're very good for getting rid of many other germs, it's not a replacement for hand washing.
[13:45:00]
Individuals who have vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps should not be preparing food and people should be careful when they touch many frequently-touched surfaces because that is one common route of transmission of norovirus as well as many other pathogens. And so, if you're using utensils in a buffet line, if you're touching the elevator button and door handles and so forth, it's always a good idea to wash your hands before eating.
JIMENEZ: Dr. Leana Wen, appreciate you being here, as always. Thank you.
Still ahead, Coldplay's Chris Martin gives a new meaning to the phrase caught on camera. The story that everyone's talking about; you've probably seen it. We'll talk about it next.
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[13:50:16]
JIMENEZ: All right. A moment of, I'm calling it, PDA at a Coldplay concert --
KEILAR: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: -- near Boston has set the internet on fire, group chats, memes, you name it. The band was performing the "Jumbotron" song when front man Chris Martin spotted a man and woman on the big screen cuddling in the crowd.
KEILAR: But when the duo realized they were on camera, they quickly separated and things got awkward.
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CHRIS MARTIN, SINGER, SONGWRITER, MUSICIAN AND CO-FOUNDER, COLDPLAY: Whoa, look at these two.
(LAUGH)
MARTIN: Either they are having an affair or they're very shy.
(LAUGH)
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KEILAR: So, CNN has not verified the identities of the man and woman, but the video had people on social media speculating about who they are and their relationship status. CNN has reached out to a representative for Coldplay for comment, though we have not received a response. Joining us is Dr. Jeff Gardere, Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Behavioral Medicine at Touro University. All right, Dr. Gardere, why is this catching so much fire and interest?
DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, let's face it, we're all addicted to social media. We're looking for the next hit, if you will, dopamine hit. That's a neurotransmitter that says, Ooh, that was good. Do it again. So there's some pleasure in getting perhaps the thrill of this or what I call, a cheap thrill at the expense of some other people. And so, this is something, by the way, that is a much lighter sort of a hit that we're getting, right? People are laughing about it.
They're passing the story around, even though it can be tragic for some other people. But it's not as bad as watching something like a road rage incident or a plane crashing, some of the other things that we tend to want to watch in order to get some excitement while being on social media. We're just so desensitized to the things that we see that we're always looking for the next thing, almost like a voyeuristic habit.
JIMENEZ: So let's talk about social media a little bit because, obviously, that's where most people are consuming this video. But, I kind of think about a video that might have gone viral like 20 years ago, maybe it's on some countdown TV show and that's the video everyone's talking about, or it's on some website. Whereas now, the way that it spreads is so much different than maybe how information used to spread. How big of a role do you think just the fact that this is on social media played in this becoming as big as it did?
GARDERE: It's an excellent point, Omar. It's instantaneous, and that's the part of it that we see why it's catching fire, because that's what we want. We want these instantaneous moments that we can easily share and people are commenting on it just as you said years ago, where it'd be a list of the top 10 things that happen and we're watching it on a network. Here, we're getting it at home on our phones so very quickly and people can make anonymous comments about it.
I've been seeing it, things such as, well, they deserved it, or the best way to keep a secret is not to cheat. And so, people get into the splitting, very black and white thinking. It makes them feel better because it's not them that it's happening to, it's happening to someone else. And so, I think that's why this will have legs for a little while, but in the next day or two, it will be forgotten as we see with most of these things.
KEILAR: Yeah. I mean, certainly not perhaps by the people involved, right? Or people who know them and are immediately touched by that. I wonder though, because this isn't going to be the last time that we see something like this. Can you talk a little bit about -- and there's been a big debate on this on social media -- the expectation of privacy, whether it's reasonable at a public event where you're not taking a starring role. I mean, what are sort of the issues that it raises for you there?
GARDERE: And another great point. Absolutely. When it comes to social media, when it comes to the internet, privacy is something that is expendable, is not there the way that we once thought. Once you're in that game, you can be a victim to something just like this. And you are right that this is going to be something that may hurt other people personally, who may be part of this. So we have to be very, very careful when we're out there pointing fingers at someone else, because of that lack of privacy, four fingers may come back pointing at us.
[13:55:00] So, be careful because what you're putting out there on someone else can easily come back and haunt you.
KEILAR: Yeah. Really interesting discussion that so many people are having today, quite frankly. Dr. Jeff Gardere, really appreciate your insights.
GARDERE: Thank you.
KEILAR: Still ahead, President Trump calling on the Attorney General to get grand jury testimony from the Jeffrey Epstein case released by a judge. What this signals for the ongoing saga, we'll have that next on "CNN News Central."
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