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Does The Late Show with Stephen Colbert have a new episode tonight, March 16th?

By Hector Cruz

NEW YORK - MARCH 13: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, interviews with Ewan McGregor, Finn Wittrock and musical performance by The Shins on Monday's taping in New York. Pictured left to right: Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste. (Photo by Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images)
NEW YORK - MARCH 13: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, interviews with Ewan McGregor, Finn Wittrock and musical performance by The Shins on Monday's taping in New York. Pictured left to right: Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste. (Photo by Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty Images) /
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“The Late Show” viewers may be surprised to find that Stephen Colbert has the night off.

Stephen Colbert is currently enjoying his most successful run to date as host of The Late Show, which just extended its winning streak to six weeks as the top-rated show in late-night, while closing the gap with the younger-skewing The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the all-important 18-49 demo. Just a few months ago, the former Colbert Report host seemed poise to lose the high-profile gig, with rumors swirling that CBS would soon replace him with Late Late Show host James Corden, whose musical segments have consistently gone viral.

But then the election happened where the thing that liberals dreaded the most took place. The Donald Trump presidency has caused disaffected Democrats (and some independents) to turn to the politically minded comedian for some levity amid the chaos in a similar way that the Bush years elevated Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show. It’s also helped that Colbert himself has stepped up his game, taking a gloves-off approach to the new administration.

Due to a delay in the Nielsen ratings because a power outage over the weekend, it’s unclear whether The Late Show’s ratings streak will continue into what will be a shortened week, as Colbert is getting Thursday off due to March Madness coverage. The second of the network’s NCAA tournament games between Virginia Tech and Wisconsin will air until at least midnight on the East Coast, pushing back the late local news and an encore of the Feb. 21 episode of The Late Show featuring Joe Scarborough and Yvette Nicole Brown, though The Late Late Show with James Corden will still air a new installment starting around 1:35 a.m. ET with guests Vanessa Hudgens and Thomas Sadoski.

Next: The Late Show ratings rise to biggest audience since Stephen Colbert replaced David Letterman

Two other first round games will air on Friday night on CBS during primetime, meaning The Late Show, which typically tapes its end of the week episode on Thursday, will once again air a rerun from February, this time with Uma Thurman and Jason Jones. But fans can expect Colbert to be back on Monday, March 20th in its normal time slot of 11:35 p.m. on CBS.

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