Stephen Colbert may have said goodbye to The Late Show earlier this year, but that doesn't mean he's sitting around wondering how to get back into late-night television. If anything, his latest comments suggest that Colbert is surprisingly comfortable with whatever comes next.
Before the Late Show picked up its Emmy, Colbert gave a red carpet interview to E! News. The outlet asked the comedian if he has any interest in returning to late-night television, less than five months after CBS turned off the lights at The Late Show.
Colbert offered a pretty telling response, saying "I think the Jimmys have got that locked down for right now. But thank you for the invitation."
It's an interesting answer because Colbert could have easily left the door wide open or teased a return somewhere down the line. Instead, he essentially acknowledged that late-night is already being handled by the likes of Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, not to mention Seth Meyers and the team at The Daily Show.
Plus, Colbert has plenty on his plate to keep himself occupied. He joked that he may be unemployed, but that doesn't mean he isn't busy.
He continues working on a new Lord of the Rings movie with his son, Peter. The process recently including spending time in New Zealand researching and working on the project.
Colbert is also working hard to develop his software company Scripto. The cloud-based platform allows screenwriting teams to collaborate on a script in real time. The comedian brought Scripto to The Late Show, and it has since been adopted by shows including Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and The Daily Show.
Scripto recently completed a $5 million seed funding round, giving Colbert another significant business venture to focus on as he figures out what his post-Late Show career looks like. Of course, none of this means Colbert will never perform on television again.
He has made it clear that performing remains important to him. But there's a difference between wanting to perform again and believing that he needs his own four-night-a-week late-night show. Clearly, the late-night legend doesn't seem to view the genre as suddenly having a giant Colbert-shaped hole that only he can fill.
For now, there is a Lord of the Rings movie to work on, Scripto to build, and presumably plenty of other opportunities that haven't even been announced yet. And if Colbert eventually finds another way to return to the late-night world, it sounds like it will only be because he genuinely wants to do it.
Add us as a preferred source on Google