2026-01-28 09:15:00
The months are counting down until the final credits roll on The Late Show in the 2026 TV schedule, and Stephen Colbert delivered an update on how he’s feeling about the cancellation since he previously said he’d learned not to “trust billionaires.” He visited another late night TV host to open up about feeling “not thrilled” as the reality of the looming finale sets in, with the comedy twist of a truly epic spit-take right on the set of Late Night with Seth Meyers.
CBS shocked the world back in July with the news that The Late Show was being cancelled after a final eleventh season with Stephen Colbert as host, and the ending feels a whole lot closer on this side of 2026. The Elsbeth scene-stealer has gotten snarky as well as emotional about the end over the past months, including when he won his first-ever Emmy for The Late Show. He was seemingly feeling sentimental again while visiting Late Night with Seth Meyers, telling SNL’s former “Weekend Update” anchor:
It feels real now… I know it was real, but now, there’s four months left. The shows are fun to do, but what I really love is the people I do it with. There are people I’ve been working with… My shoemaker, Tom Purcell, I’ve known since 1988. And so, we’ve all been together forever. Listen, you can do comedy a lot of different places. There’s no place like the Ed Sullivan Theater, but it’s really the people. That’s really what I care about. That’s really what I’m going to miss more than anything, and we’ll do something else together, but it feels real now. I’m not thrilled with it.
Colbert got serious about the end of his time with the people working on his show now that it “feels real,” but that doesn’t mean he brought gloom and doom to Late Night. As soon as Seth Meyers started to broach the subject of the cancellation, the Colbert Report vet reached for his mug and… well, it deserves to be seen at least once. Take a look:
I’d be lying if I claimed to have only watched that clip once, because it was already funny as soon as Stephen Colbert started trying to keep a straight face behind his mug while waiting to deliver his spit-take. Seth Meyers, undoubtedly a veteran of the spit-take himself after more than a decade on Saturday Night Live, had a reaction worth a watch as well.
Still, my favorite part might be when Colbert realized that he’d ended up with about as much water on himself as he projected outward. Honestly, I don’t think the spit-take would be as epic if it had been more successful. It does make me miss the comedy that he brings to the small screen on a regular basis as host of The Late Show. The end is quite literally in sight now as well, with Deadline confirming the series finale will air on Thursday, May 21 on CBS.
I do think it’s a safe bet that the final weeks of The Late Show will be pretty packed with standout guest stars. My fingers are crossed to see Colbert’s fellow late night hosts turning up before the end. Jon Stewart seems like a likely visitor, and my fingers are crossed for John Oliver to visit the couch at the Ed Sullivan Theater at least one more time. And who knows? Now that Seth Meyers has hosted Stephen Colbert in 2026, maybe Meyers will visit Colbert.
For now, you can find new episodes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS, or stream the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.