Late-Night Returns: ‘The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert Says “It Was A Crazy Summer To Be Off”

Stephen Colbert returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater to a standing ovation.

The Late Show host is kicking off his first show back in five months with Neil deGrasse Tyson as his first guests. It also marked Colbert’s first show since it was revealed that he’d signed a new contract to remain as host of the show until 2026.

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“It feels good to be back, it feels good to be back with all of you in the Ed Sullivan Theater because after the first few months of the strike, Evie refused to keep chanting my name,” he joked.

Obviously, he talked about the strike.

“Now the writers strike is over, with a new contract that includes protections against A.I., cost of living increases, better pay and better pay for streaming. Plus, thanks the picket lines, my writers got fresh air and sunshine and they do not care for that. Now, they’re back safely in their joke holes, doing what they do best, making my prompter word screen full of good and haha,” he said.

Much like John Oliver did last night, Colbert highlighted that it was a pretty strange time to be off given how much fun he would have had mocking some of the news, such as multiple Trump indictments and Lauren Boebert’s inappropriate behavior at a Beetlejuice musical.

“It’s been a long time since our last Late Show, we looked at the calendar today and I believe that we have been off the air for 154 indictments. It was a crazy summer to be off, it was packed with events. Obviously it would be stupid to try and recap everything that happened over the last five months, so here we go…,” he said.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is exec produced by Colbert, Jon Stewart and Tom Purcell. It is produced by CBS Studios in association with Spartina Productions.

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