Stephen Colbert has a short answer for anyone wondering whether he is pining for the nightly late-night grind: “Nope!”
The Emmy-winning host appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night, one night after “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” won outstanding variety series for its final season. As Colbert walked onto Kimmel’s stage, he greeted the format with a bit of distance.
“Late night TV. I remember it well. Many fond memories of this,” Colbert said.
Jimmy Kimmel then asked him directly, “Do you ever think about it?” Colbert’s reply was immediate: “Nope!”
The exchange came after a major awards moment for Colbert and “The Late Show,” which ended in May after CBS announced the series’ cancellation. On Monday night, the show won its first outstanding variety series honor, taking the category for its final season.
Colbert on life away from the nightly news cycle
Colbert told Kimmel that one of the differences now is that he no longer has to “think about the news every day.” Kimmel said that when he saw Colbert at the Emmys on Monday night, the former host seemed “like a different person,” as well as “happier” and “healthier.”
Colbert responded with a characteristically vivid description of the demands of the job.
“Like I don’t drink a cup of poison every day?” he said. “A good part of the job is, as I remember it, to be lowered like carbon rods into a radioactive pool every day. And then to be pulled out and put in front of a camera. And to radiate it back at the audience at a nonlethal rad level.”
While Colbert’s “Nope!” made clear that he is not dwelling on a return to late-night television, he has also spoken warmly about the genre and the people still working in it.
Speaking after the Emmy Awards with CNN correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister and Variety co-president and co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, Colbert said free speech is “alive and well.” He also said he believes late-night remains an important part of television, even amid challenges facing the format in recent years.
“Because if you can’t say something because you go to jail, that is a violation of free speech,” Colbert said. “I think that late night is just as funny and just as vital as it ever has been, and I love watching Jimmy and Jimmy and John and John and Seth and everybody else. And I think I hope it goes on for a long time because you get to work with people like this, and that’s the greatest gift.”
A final-season Emmy win
“The Late Show” win Monday night marked the program’s first outstanding variety series victory. The show competed in the category against “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” on HBO Max and “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.
For Colbert, the week brought both a farewell-season victory lap and a candid acknowledgment of what stepping away from the daily pressure of late-night has meant. He may still value the format, praise its role on television and celebrate the colleagues who continue in it — but when Kimmel asked whether he thinks about going back, Colbert did not leave much room for interpretation.