Stephen Colbert Says He Made ‘The Late Show’ More Political After His Producer Told Him ‘That’s the Part the Audience Wants to See’

Colbert said at first, the plan was to back away from politics after his transition from “The Colbert Report” to “The Late Show.” He explained to NYT, “It was my instinct to be less topical, because I didn’t want to have to engage with what I saw was an increasingly contentious public discourse. And I thought, ‘Aren’t there other ways to have fun with the audience?’”

But then, the 2016 national party conventions gave Colbert the opportunity to push hard on political humor. The late-night host said during that time, he felt like “Clint Eastwood in ‘Unforgiven,’ or is it some other movie? He buried his guns. And I’m like, you know, I buried those damn guns. I was talking to Paul Dinello — he’s one of my oldest friends and one of my producers here — and he’s like, ‘You’re having fun, and people love to see that.’ And I said, ‘But that means I got to go dig up the guns.’ And he says, ‘Buddy, that’s the part the audience wants to see.’”

Colbert will soon air his final episode of “The Late Show.” His home network, CBS, announced the end of the historic late-night program in July of 2025, citing the move as “a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Some have speculated that CBS ended “The Late Show” to curry favor with longtime critic, President Donald Trump, who, through the FCC, could’ve stopped a then-pending merger between CBS’ parent company, Paramount, and Skydance.

Colbert told The Times that, although he does “make jokes” about CBS’ ulterior motives, he does “not dispute their rationale” for ending “The Late Show.”

“It’s possible that two things can be true,” Colbert said. “Broadcast can be in trouble. They cannot monetize because of things like YouTube, because of the competition of streaming. They’ve got the books, and I do not have any desire to debate them over what they say their business model is and how it does not work for them anymore. But less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed.”