David Letterman Torches CBS Owners as 'Lying Weasels' Over 'Late Show' Axe

David Letterman is unloading in a new print interview -- torching his former CBS bosses as "lying weasels" for their ongoing claim "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" is ending over financial reasons.

The OG late-night TV king says this was never about money ... it was a bigger play tied to the network's parent company deal with Skydance Media -- alleging execs basically treated Stephen and his show like an add-on perk to sweeten the sale.

As he puts it, their thinking sounded like: "There's not going to be any trouble with that guy, we're going to take care of the show. We're just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry..."

In Letterman's words, speaking to The New York Times, he reiterated, "They’re lying ... They’re lying weasels!"

Letterman doubled down ... saying sure, TV isn’t the cash cow it used to be in the age of streamers ... but what about the humanity, and the fans who’ve stuck with Colbert from the beginning?

For context, “The Late Show” is set to wrap May 21 -- ending a CBS late-night run spanning more than three decades -- with plenty of side-eyes over the timing of the announcement, which came after Colbert took shots at Paramount Global for settling Donald Trump’s "60 Minutes" lawsuit.