Late-night TV isn’t what it used to be, but we’re losing a great one with the end of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
On July 17, Colbert broke the news to his live audience during the show’s taping at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan, New York. “Next year will be our last season,” said Colbert. “[CBS] will be ending The Late Show in May.” Amidst the audience’s gasps and boos at the news, Colbert continued, “It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”
CBS, the American broadcast television and radio network that has aired The Late Show since 2015, officially stated that its reasons for ending the show are purely financial. The network’s statement also acknowledged that Colbert’s run has been the top show in late-night for nine straight seasons.
Comedy’s Sharpest Voice
When I first moved to New York City for college, one of the first pilgrimages I made was to the Ed Sullivan Theater. There is an earnest, albeit dorky, photo of me as a freshman standing right in front of Colbert’s bright red and blue marquee. My arms are akimbo, my smile wide underneath the mask I’m wearing because it’s 2021 and we were well in the pandemic, and the only thing I could think of was how I was maybe only a hundred feet away from Colbert — the man who shaped my sense of comedy and curiosity, and whose presence on the late-night show circuit often reminded me that comedy is all we have when the world is falling apart.
For anyone as madly in love with comedy and satire as I am, Colbert is a constant staple. From his early days on The Daily Show to The Colbert Report where he played a “conservative” host (who Colbert has described as a “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot”) to his steady, amiable, and subtly scathing monologues on big bad politicians, billionaires, and bureaucrats, Colbert has used his unmatched wit to dissect the absurdities of our times. Whether he’s cracking jokes with his latest celebrity guest, geeking out over J.R.R. Tolkien lore any chance he gets, or holding global politicians accountable for their actions by poking fun at their many questionable choices, Colbert has always been a comedic anchor, a reliable voice of reason to turn to at the end of a long day.
The end of Colbert’s time on late night doesn’t just signal a loss in American comedy. For the rest of the world, it marks a network silencing of one of comedy’s most incisive voices only for “financial reasons.” Colbert has proven time and time again that humor can be a form of truth-telling, a powerful tool to challenge complacency and hold power to account. Without Colbert, we are down a cultural compass and one more person to call the world’s bullshit out and to remind us that laughter is always a strong form of resistance. And we are a little worse off because of it.
Although this is unlikely the last we’ll hear of Colbert, who may take the same route as fellow late night alum Conan O’Brien and start his own podcast or series projects, we will just have to wait and see.
