Colbert's Answer to Returning to Late Night: 'Nope' — SkimNews
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- Stephen Colbert appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tuesday night, days after winning outstanding variety series for the final season of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."
- When Kimmel asked if he ever thinks about returning to late night, Colbert replied flatly: "Nope!"
- Colbert told Kimmel he no longer has to "think about the news every day," and described the old gig as being "lowered like carbon rods into a radioactive pool" before radiating it back at viewers "at a nonlethal rad level."
- Kimmel said Colbert looked "like a different person," "happier" and "healthier" since leaving the CBS late-night slot, and Colbert quipped: "Like I don't drink a cup of poison every day?"
- Speaking with CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister and Variety co-editor Ramin Setoodeh after the Emmys, Colbert said free speech is "alive and well" and that late night is "just as funny and just as vital as it ever has been."
- "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" ended in May following CBS's cancellation, but took its first outstanding variety series Emmy Monday, beating "The Daily Show," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live."
- Other outlets covering the appearance — including Rolling Stone and The New York Times — focused on the lighter on-air moments, such as Kimmel goading Colbert into shaving his beard, a beat Variety's write-up barely touches.
Why it matters: Colbert's exit in May ended a nine-year CBS run and left late night's late-shift lineup thinner; his Emmy win and his buoyant, no-regrets return appearance underscore that the genre's post-Colbert future now belongs to Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, Oliver and the Daily Show rotation without him at the desk.
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