The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is ending in May but the host is already courting new employers.
Colbert, who is off for a few weeks on a summer hiatus, joked that he’s waiting to hear from Netflix and Amazon after CBS unceremoniously canceled the iconic late-night franchise.
This came after President Trump once again slammed the late-night hosts from The White House.
“Colbert has no talent, Fallon has no talent, Kimmel has no talent, they’re next, I hear they’re going to be going. I don’t know but I would imagine because you know Colbert has better ratings than Kimmel or Fallon, you know that?,” the President said this week.
“I knew that,” Colbert replied. “To be fair, I think we’re all equally untalented. I just want to say thank you for watching, sir, and thank you for agreeing to be in our new promo.”
The promo read: “Stephen Colbert is number one in late-night, just ask our elderly viewers.” Then came a Still Canceled sign.
After making a joke about JD Vance and his holidays, he said, “Netflix, call me I’m available in June.”
Later after more jokes, he added, “I will also entertain offers from Amazon.”
Colbert’s tongue may have been firmly in his cheek, but it will be interesting to see what Colbert does after The Late Show. Obviously making a show for a streamer is one option, as seen by the late-career revival of David Letterman with My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix or Conan O’Brien’s travel show on HBO Max.
After Skydance closed its deal to buy Paramount yesterday, CBS boss George Cheeks made his first on the record comments about the decision to cancel the show.
“The challenge in late night is that the advertising marketplace is in significant secular decline,” Cheeks said at a press conference. “We are huge fans of Colbert, we love the show, unfortunately the economics made it a challenge for us to keep going.”