Stephen Colbert is riding high after walking away with his first Emmy win for hosting The Late Show. In his first episode since winning the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series at the 77th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, Colbert was absolutely beaming with excitement.
“We should have gotten canceled years ago,” Colbert joked as he brought out his Emmy Award. It was a brilliant nod to the reality that it really did seem to take his late night show’s cancellation for the Academy voters to finally recognize the show after 10 years of overlooking it in the Talk Series race.
Regardless of what prompted the voters to finally reward the show with an Emmy, Colbert is happy to have finally seen the hard work of the 200 hardworking people on his show recognized.
“This award belongs to the 200 hardworking people who make this show, first and foremost, the writers of this show. Every day, they take down everything I say during the show just so that there’s a script at the end of the night as a souvenir for everybody. It’s incredible. They do it every day,” Colbert noted of his hardworking crew.
“But they don’t do it alone. The stage crew, production staff, talent, editors, the band, control room, props, graphics, research, digital, accounting, legal, wardrobe, make-up, security, maintenance, assistants and interns,” he continued. “And of course, the audience department, who let in all of you gorgeous people every night. Because you, the audience, you people here, you people out there, you are the ones who ultimately make this show possible, so this belongs to you too, but I’m gonna keep it.”
As he drew his celebration to a close, Colbert had a little fun rubbing his win in the face of his longtime critic, President Donald Trump.
“Speaking of Emmys, Donald Trump doesn’t have one,” Colbert joked, calling attention to Trump’s lack of Emmys.
Interestingly, Trump has somehow yet to respond to Colbert’s Emmy win, though we imagine a reaction is inevitable. While Trump wasn’t live-tweeting this year’s Emmys as he’s done in past years, most notably when Jimmy Kimmel served as host, we’re certain he tuned in or at least kept an eye on the Talk Series race. After all, it featured three of his “favorite” hosts in Colbert, Kimmel, and Jon Stewart.
Regardless of what Trump will or won’t have to say about Colbert’s win, Colbert’s certainly kicking off his farewell tour on a high and proving he’s going to go out on top.
The Late Show gets to enter its final months as an Emmy-winning late-night series and we wouldn't be surprised at all if the show's farewell season didn't result in additional Emmy wins in 2026! With nothing to lose, Colbert is doing some of his best work yet and we will happily continue to tune in nightly right up until the end!