Stephen Colbert taped last show before surgery with burst appendix: 'I'm kinda brave'
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The host didn't know he had a burst appendix at the time and suffered through taping two shows before going to the hospital.
Stephen Colbert returned to the Late Show on Monday after being absent since before Thanksgiving due to a ruptured appendix. In his return, Colbert detailed the ordeal, which saw him lose 14 pounds between the surgery and recovery.
The last time he was at the Late Show desk, Colbert was "in a heap of trouble." Bandleader Louis Cato knew something was wrong because, for the first time in Late Show history, Colbert rehearsed his monologue at his desk with a "barf bucket" next to him. "I had forgotten that detail until you reminded me," Colbert laughed.
The host wasn't feeling great during the last show before his absence, a day on which they taped two shows. He was in pain but didn't yet know that his appendix had burst. They taped a pair of episodes because the show had already missed five months during the WGA writers' strike and had missed a week when he contracted COVID-19.
CBS
Stephen Colbert"It only hurt when I moved and when I didn't," Colbert said of the taping. Though he was in pain, he did not tell his guests. That proved to be a bit of a problem. During a cooking segment, chef Jose Andrés grabbed Colbert and proceeded to dance with him.
"I don't want to get too technical here," Colbert said of that moment, "but I was dying."
After the show, Colbert had a "raging fever." His driver, Pablo, wanted to take him to the hospital. Colbert rebuffed the help and just wanted to go home. Then his wife, Evie Colbert, called to say Pablo should take him to the hospital. He again said no. Then, his wife called again to inform him that he was going to the hospital.
At that point, Colbert paused to have his wife, who was at Monday's taping, confirm the story. The crowd responded by chanting her name.
When Colbert arrived at the hospital, his appendix had already burst. "When they opened me up, it was like they'd shot John Wick 5 down there," Colbert said.
Colbert wrapped things up by, after reciting some Samuel Coleridge, thanking the doctors and nurses at St. Barnabas, the show's staff who got him through the taping, and his family. "They filled the hole where my appendix used to be with love," he said.
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