Hot off his Emmy win for outstanding variety series, Stephen Colbert went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night and revealed if he ever thinks about returning to late night television.
“Late night TV. I remember it well. Many fond memories of this,” Colbert said while taking the stage. “Do you ever think about it?” Kimmel asked, to which Colbert responded: “Nope!”
The Emmy-winner continued to remark about the fact that he no longer has to “think about the news every day,” to which Kimmel pointed out that Colbert seemed “like a different person,” “happier” and “healthier” when he saw the former host at the Emmys Monday night.
“Like I don’t drink a cup of poison every day?” Colbert responded. “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.”
Speaking with CNN correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister and Variety co-president and co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh after the Emmy Awards, Colbert said free speech in is “alive and well” and thinks late-night is still a crucial part of the television ecosystem, despite the genre’s challenges 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.”
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ended in May after CBS announced the series’ cancellation.
“The Late Show” took home its first outstanding variety series on Monday night for its final season. It competed in the category against “The Daily Show” (Comedy Central), “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC), “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO Max) and “Saturday Night Live” (NBC).