“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert took a shot at his corporate bosses as he was honored at the Writers Guild Awards in New York on Sunday.
Colbert was given the Walter Bernstein Award, which the WGA said is for a member who has “demonstrated with creativity, grace and bravery a willingness to confront social injustice in the face of adversity.”
But at the ceremony, Colbert said he doesn’t “deserve” any parallels to the award’s namesake, who was blacklisted during McCarthyism in the 1950s for being a member of the Communist Party.
“This is not the 1950s. This is not the Red Scare. And, as far as I can tell, no one in late night is fomenting a revolution,” Colbert said. “As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised but then Paramount bought it.”
That was a reference to his show being canceled by CBS last summer ― something President Donald Trump had long demanded ― which came just as corporate parent Paramount sought FCC approval to complete a merger.
That merger was approved just one week later.
Critics believe Paramount cut Colbert to help seal the deal, but the company said it was “purely a financial decision” as the show was losing $40 million a year ― a number many, including late night rival Jimmy Kimmel, have said they found hard to believe.
Colbert also made a reference to that in his Sunday speech.
“Evidently, the revolution was losing, like, $40 million a year. It had to go,” he said, then joked about his own potential future. “I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack.”
Colbert’s final show is currently set for May 21.
Check out the full segment ― which included some jokes that didn’t make it onto “The Late Show” ― below:
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