Stephen Colbert is still making a splash on the airwaves nearly two weeks after bidding farewell to “The Late Show.”
The former host has used his old CBS program’s eBay store to raise thousands of dollars for Monroe Community Media, the nonprofit organization behind the Michigan-based public access show “Only In Monroe.”
Back in 2015, Colbert served as a guest host of the show and interviewed “local Michiganer” Eminem just before he kicked off his 11-year run at “The Late Show.” Last month, he returned to “Only in Monroe” less than 24 hours after he wrapped his program in the Ed Sullivan Theater.
During his latest hosting gig, Colbert interviewed permanent hosts Kaye Lani Wilson and Michelle Baumann while sliding in a parting jab at Paramount, CBS’s parent company that stripped him of his late-night program for “purely financial reasons.”
He also recruited star guests like former White Stripes frontman Jack White and actor Jeff Daniels to help destroy the public access show’s set with sledgehammers before burning some of it in a dumpster outside the studio.
And the made-for-public-access-TV destruction is paying off.
Just this week, Colbert has auctioned off autographed items on eBay such as destroyed set pieces, his mug from the 2026 episode, as well as scripts from his 2026 and 2015 appearances.
The auctions have netted more than $15,000 for Monroe Community Media, the organization’s creative director, Genevieve Benson, told Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV.
“That is a major game changer,” said Benson, who noted that the station made operations manager Jerry Gysin a full-time employee as a result.
Outside of the auctioned items, WXYZ-TV reported Colbert also donated some equipment from “The Late Show” to the Monroe studio.
Benson revealed that the “Only In Monroe” set was “literally the same” as the one Colbert used the first time he appeared in the studio in 2015.
Gysin told WXYZ-TV the Colbert-led destruction offers a chance for the station to build a new set from the old pieces.
“It was kind of an exciting thing; it was one era ending and a new one beginning,” he said.
Benson stressed that public-access centers across the country are “suffering from financial loss.”
“I was so grateful that they did destroy [the set] for us because we couldn’t afford a dumpster for ourselves, and to see it burst into flames was so beautiful. It’s so beautiful,” she said.