Stephen Colbert was surprised that his number one show was cancelled: ‘This isn’t my choice, don’t want to be alone’

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When asked about his exact reaction, Stephen Colbert said, “I was surprised. Listen, every show has got to end, but we were the number one show. I called a friend of mine, who is also in late-night TV, and I asked him, ‘Do you have thoughts on this?’ and he told me, ‘No! No one is going to have any thoughts on this because no one has seen the number one show for 9 years straight be cancelled.'”

He added that being in front of the audience is the greatest gift that he has ever received, and the fact that they responded to him was even better. “The show itself is a coping mechanism for everything that is going on in the country. You get to go out there and say what you feel in front of an audience, and what do we most want to be? Not alone. I am not alone when I am with the audience. The great thing about comedy is that you know when it works because the audience makes that noise with their mouths. When that happens, you walk off stage with more energy than you had while walking onto it,” said Colbert.

Stephen Colbert then recalled how he came back to his house after being told that his show was going off air. He revealed that he had been called for just a 15-minute meeting, but soon that turned into hours and that it was his wife who helped him deal with the news.

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He said, “So my assistant called me and said that my agent, James ‘Babydoll’ Dixon, wanted to speak to me for 15 minutes. When those 15 minutes came by, he told me that this was going to be the last season. Then we talked for hours, and when I finally got home to my wife, who had been expecting me in 15 minutes, she asked me, ‘That was two and a half hours. What happened? Did you get cancelled? I said, ‘Yup.'”

He added, “We sat down, and she got me a drink, and then she asked me, ‘What do you want to do next?’ and that was it. She is a breathtakingly level-headed girl. She wanted me to let go of that upset, and I do anything she asks me to do.”

After Paramount settled a lawsuit with President Donald Trump, the latter was paid $16 million (Rs 141 crore). The next day Stephen Colbert called the settlement “something that looked like a big fat bribe.” A day later, CBS, whose parent company is Paramount, announced that Colbert’s show would be cancelled.

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