Colbert Prepares to Say Goodbye to Late Show

Stephen Colbert is packing up his desk at the Ed Sullivan Theater—and he's still not entirely sure why. In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, the Late Show host reflects on CBS' decision to end his show on May 21 after 11 seasons, a move the network has framed as a financial necessity in a brutal late-night ad market.

• Colbert says he doesn't dispute that explanation but he understands why people might find it "fishy," given Paramount's settlement with President Trump over a "frivolous" lawsuit and Colbert's long-running criticism of the president. He notes CBS had recently pushed him to sign a much longer deal. "So, something changed." He stresses, however, that he has "really liked" working with CBS and wants to leave on good terms: "I feel so much better to be 'grateful for' than to be 'mad about.'"

• Asked why he thinks Trump and the FCC have focused on him and other late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert says, "Authoritarians don't like anybody who doesn't give them undue dignity. Comedians are anti-authoritarian by nature. And authoritarians are never going to like anybody to laugh at them."
• Colbert says calling late-night partisan is "roughing the ref." "I don't have any problem with Trump being a Republican," he says. "I have a problem with Trump being a complete narcissist who is only working for his own interest and does not appear to care if the entire world burns. That's not a partisan position." He adds: "Partisan means you're never, ever going to make a joke about a Democrat, and that's just not true. There's just no comparison of how fertile the fields are."

• Colbert, who turns 62 next month, is co-writing a new Lord of the Rings movie. Beyond that "dream project," he's not sure what his post-Late Show future holds, but he says he loves a live audience and likes being a host. He says the show takes like 95% of my brain" and while he has had plenty of calls about other projects, he will think about them when "this is over and I have a little time to breathe."
• Click for the full interview, in which Colbert compares his shift to political jokes months after taking over the Late Show in 2015 to "Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven ... He buried his guns."