Stephen Colbert opens up about his next chapter after CBS canceled his late-night show.
In a new interview with GQwhich was carried out shortly before The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won big at the Emmy Awards 2025Colbert, 61, said he “accepted” the network’s decision to pull the plug on his show.
“Listen, every show has to end at some point,” Colbert said GQ. “And I’ve been on a lot of shows that have ended sometimes with our lights out and sometimes by other people’s decisions. And that’s just the nature of show business. You can’t worry about it. You’ve got to be a big boy about it. But I think we’re the first number one show that’s been canceled.”
When the interviewer pointed out how long Colbert “has been plugging (his) mouth into the news exhaust pipe,” the comedian quipped, “That sounds vaguely suicidal.”
Colbert continued: “‘You’ve been running your car in the closed media garage for 20 years, are you getting a little dizzy?’ Yeah, I’m getting a little dizzy. Listen, George Cheeks (then co-CEO of Paramount and chairman and CEO of CBS) may have saved my life. I’ll get some oxygen back into my brain.”
All kidding aside, Colbert made it clear he loved the gig. “I love what we do and I love the grind,” he said. “You can only do one of those shows, do the pranks every night, year after year for 20 years, if you care about what you’re talking about. And I do. But there’s a sense of relief that maybe I don’t have to put on my snorkel and go into the sewer every day.”
Stephen Colbert hosts “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”
Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty ImagesThe news broke in July this The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ends in May 2026. “It’s not just the end of our show, but the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced,” Colbert said in a clip from a live taping. “All of that is going away. I mean the people at CBS have been great partners… And I’m grateful to the audience, to you, who have joined us every night, here, out there and around the world.”
CBS said in a statement at the time that the decision was purely “financial” and was “in no way related to the show’s performance, content or other matters going on at Paramount,” adding, “We are proud that Stephen has called CBS home.”
While talking to GQColbert insisted he’s had a “great relationship” with the network from its version of The Late Show it started in 2015.
“It’s one of the reasons it was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble,” he continued. “We do budgets and all that. We’ve made cuts and stuff like that. That’s why I was surprised, like I said, but I wanted to say what I said (on air) the next night after I found out, because I couldn’t sit through it. They’ve been great partners. They really have. They’ve been very supportive.”
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Colbert reiterated that he maintains a “professional” perspective. despite what the public may think about what happened behind the scenes. (Days before news of the cancellation broke, Colbert called on Paramount, CBS’ parent company, to reach a $16 million settlement with the president donald trump.)
“But my side of the street is clean and I have no interest in picking up a broom or adding to the waste on the other side of the street. It’s not my problem,” he explained. “So people can have their theories. I have my feelings about not doing the show anymore, but you’d have to show me why it’s a fruitful relationship for me to have with my network for the next nine months, for me to participate in that speculation.”
While relieved to be out of the headlines, Colbert said he’s “going to miss being able to go out and make jokes” about what’s in the news. “I’m going to miss every aspect of my job other than doing makeup,” she teased.
As for what’s next, Colbert doesn’t think he will leave the show behind for good, but it will not be lost without late night.
“I know who I am without it,” she told the network. “I didn’t do any of that until I was 41. I got the Colbert Report when I was 41. I was too old to get one of those jobs. And when I got this gig, which I never planned on because I’m not a standup, I’m not from the background that you usually get one of those gigs. And I was 51, but I didn’t really think of it as old. I mean, it’s late to take, so I just married all my children before I was Stephen Colbert, and my identity is associated with my faith.