Fans of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert may want to make sure they tune in tonight. After a brand new episode on Wednesday, March 18, the show is about to disappear from the schedule for an extended stretch.
Beginning Thursday, March 19, CBS will put The Late Show into reruns, with repeats expected to continue through at least March 27. The silver lining in the hiatus is that it isn't due to any creative decision with CBS or outside interference. Instead, it’s all about sports.
Like every spring, CBS is giving over much of its primetime and late-night time slots to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The annual March Madness tournament is a ratings juggernaut, and its games often run late into the night, forcing the network to reshuffle or outright preempt its regular programming. So, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert becomes an easy cut.
For viewers, that means nearly two weeks without new episodes of Colbert’s show at a particularly inconvenient time. The show's days are already numbered.
The break comes as Stephen Colbert is already counting down toward his final episode, scheduled for May 21. With a limited number of shows left in his run, losing this chunk of the schedule effectively trims Colbert's remaining time on air even further. In other words, every skipped night now carries a bit more weight than it normally would during a standard season.
That makes tonight’s episode feel a little more significant than your average midweek installment.
The March 18 show will feature actor Edward Norton as the evening’s top guest. He could discuss the documentary Fasting and the Longevity Revolution, which he narrates, or his upcoming comedy The Invite, co-starring Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, and Penelope Cruz.
Then, Colbert will join a a cooking demo from renowned chef José Andrés. The celebrity chef has been a frequent guest of The Late Show, last appearing back in October.
For fans who have been following along as the host approaches his sign-off, the interruption is a reminder that the end is coming quickly, and that there are only so many new episodes left to enjoy. So if you’ve been meaning to catch The Late Show live, tonight might be the moment to do it. After that, viewers will have to settle for reruns while CBS turns its attention to buzzer-beaters and brackets.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS. You can also stream content on Paramount+.