It's been a month since CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, announcing the late-night show will end in May 2026. Stephen Colbert doesn't officially have a new gig lined up yet, but Conan O'Brien is very confident that his fellow late-night star will stay busy.
Right now, there is only speculation about what Colbert could do after The Late Show ends. He joked that Netflix should get in touch, suggesting he may want to make the jump to a streaming service rather than deal with network television. Any new venture by Colbert will have the full support of Conan O'Brien.
O'Brien called Colbert "too talented and too essential to go away" during his induction speech at the Television Hall of Fame. The Late Show host will “evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely,” O’Brien predicted. “Yes, late-night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear,” he added. “But those voices aren’t going anywhere.”
There is no better success story than O'Brien when it comes to life after late-night TV. He's managed to reinvent himself multiple times, moving from a writer at Saturday Night Live to hosting three different late-night shows. And when O'Brien walked away from the genre on his own terms, he made sure his voice was still heard.
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend is a massive success and arguably one of the greatest podcasts of all time. Then there is his travel show, Conan O'Brien Must Go, which recently launched its second season. Add in appearances on Everybody's Live with John Mulaney and Saturday Night Live, plus movie roles in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You and Toy Story 5, and it's clear O'Brien is laying out a blueprint for Colbert to follow.
O'Brien's post-late-night success is largely due to having complete control over what he does. He doesn't have to deal with network interference or worry about corporate (or real-world) politics. It seems HBO is happy to send him anywhere in the world for content, and SiriusXM hasn't made any noticeable changes to the podcast since acquiring it in 2022.
But these obstacles are ultimately what may have cost Colbert his late-night TV job with Paramount. Colbert has spent the past month making his voice heard regardless, showing no signs of holding back during the final run of The Late Show and in the process, proving O'Brien right.