Stephen Colbert is opening up about his subsequent chapter after CBS canceled his late evening present.
In a brand new interview with GQ, which was carried out shortly earlier than The Late Present With Stephen Colbert received large on the 2025 Emmy Awards, Colbert, 61, stated he “accepted” the community's resolution to drag the plug on his present.
“Hear, each present's obtained to finish at a while,” Colbert instructed GQ. “And I've been on a bunch of exhibits which have ended generally by our lights and generally by the choice of different individuals. And that's simply the character of present enterprise. You possibly can't fear about that. You bought to be a giant boy about that. However I feel we're the primary primary present to ever get canceled.”
When the interviewer famous how lengthy Colbert has “been attaching [his] mouth to the exhaust pipe of stories,” the comic quipped, “That sounds vaguely suicidal.”
Colbert continued, “‘You've been operating your automobile within the closed storage of media for 20 years, are you getting a little bit woozy?' Yeah, I'm getting a little bit woozy. Hear, it's potential that George Cheeks [at the time, co-CEO of Paramount and the president and CEO of CBS] saved my life. I'll get a little bit oxygen again into my mind.”
Jokes apart, Colbert made it clear he beloved the gig. “I really like what we do and I really like the grind,” he stated. “You possibly can solely do one in every of these exhibits, do the jokes each evening, 12 months after 12 months for 20 years, should you give a rattling in any respect about what you're speaking about. And I do. However there's a sense of aid that I may not should placed on the snorkel and get into the sewer daily.”
Stephen Colbert internet hosting ‘The Late Present With Stephen Colbert' Photograph by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS through Getty Pictures
Information broke in July that The Late Present With Stephen Colbert is ending in Could 2026. “It's not simply the top of our present, however it's the top of The Late Present on CBS. I'm not being changed,” Colbert stated in a clip from a reside taping. “That is all simply going away. I do wish to say that the oldsters at CBS have been nice companions … And I'm grateful to the viewers, you, who've joined us each evening, in right here, on the market, and all all over the world.”
CBS famous in a press release on the time that the choice was purely “monetary” and wasn't “associated in any solution to the present's efficiency, content material or different issues occurring at Paramount,” including, “We're proud that Stephen referred to as CBS house.”
Whereas talking to GQ, Colbert insisted that he's had a “nice relationship” with the community since his model of The Late Present started in 2015.
“It's one of many the explanation why this was so shocking and so surprising that there was no preamble to this,” he continued. “We do budgets and every thing like that. We've carried out cuts and stuff like that. In order that's why it was shocking to me, as I stated, however I meant what I stated [on air] the following evening after I came upon, as a result of I couldn't sit on it. They've been nice companions. They actually have. They've been very supportive.”
Being a star visitor on a chat present isn't all the time clean crusing— keep in mind Dakota Johnson's notorious on-air clapback to Ellen DeGeneres over a celebration invite? Superstar interviews are a dangerous — however essential — component of any speak present, since an unique chat with an A-lister can draw enormous scores or generate countless social […]
Colbert reiterated that he's sustaining a “skilled” perspective regardless of what the general public would possibly take into consideration what occurred behind the scenes. (Days earlier than the cancellation information, Colbert referred to as out Paramount, CBS' dad or mum firm, for reaching a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.)
“However my aspect of the road is clear and I've little interest in choosing up a brush or including to refuse on the opposite aspect of the road. Not my downside,” he defined. “So individuals can have their theories. I've my emotions about not doing the present anymore, however you'd have to indicate me why that's a fruitful relationship for me to have with my community for the following 9 months, for me to have interaction in that hypothesis.”
Regardless of feeling relieved about disengaging from the headlines, Colbert stated he'll “miss the flexibility to go on the market and make jokes” about what's within the information. “I'll miss each side of my job aside from sporting make-up,” he teased.
As for what's subsequent, Colbert doesn't assume he'll depart present enterprise behind for good — however he received't be misplaced with out late evening.
“I do know who I'm with out this,” he instructed the outlet. “I didn't do any of this till I used to be 41. I obtained the Colbert Report once I was 41. I used to be actually outdated to get one in every of these jobs. After which by the point I obtained this gig, which I by no means deliberate on as a result of I'm not a standup, I'm not from the background that often will get one in every of these gigs. And I used to be 51 once I took it. That's actually outdated for any individual — it's not likely outdated, however you recognize what I imply. It's late to take it. So that's solely to say, I used to be married with all my youngsters earlier than I used to be Stephen Colbert, that anyone would know. And my identification is related to that. And the household I grew up with and my religion.”
