Stephen Colbert has discussed his late night talk show cancellation, saying the decision might have “saved” him.
Last July, Colbert announced on air that The Late Show had been cancelled by its network CBS. The comedian and satirist has hosted the show since 2015, when he took over from David Letterman, who had been the host for 22 years before him. The show has won a Peabody Award and an Emmy during its run
CBS chose to retire The Late Show franchise entirely, describing the move as “purely a financial decision”, although it has been widely speculated that the cancellation might be politically motivated, due to Colbert’s pattern of openly criticising the Donald Trump administration. The US President posted at the time: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.”
Colbert will take to the stage for one last time on Thursday (May 21), and in a new interview with People he reflected on his time on the show. “I tried never to take for granted filming in the Ed Sullivan Broadway theatre,” he said. “Having that tremendous audience, or having the ability to work with the funniest people I know every day and make jokes about the things that make me most anxious.”
He also said CBS might have “saved my life”, explaining: “It takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do.”
Those things include co-writing a new Lord Of The Rings movie, titled Shadows Of The Past, which he is developing with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee.
Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, and David Byrne have all been guests during the final week of the show’s broadcast. However, the final episode’s guests still remain under wraps.