Jon Stewart stopped by The Late Show to pay tribute to his friend and former colleague Stephen Colbert, offering up a few gifts to honor the late-night show’s unfortunate ending.
During the lengthy interview, Colbert and Stewart reminisced about their days together on The Daily Show, where Colbert was a correspondent for eight years. Colbert shared a photo of the pair together behind The Daily Show desk 27 years ago. “This is no disrespect to me, but one of us has not aged as well as the other,” Stewart quipped. “This looks like a double-blind study where they gave one of these people is getting age-defying peptides and the other one is getting a placebo. I have gotten the placebo.”
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Stewart also offered his thoughts on CBS deciding to cancel The Late Show, which comes to an end on Thursday night. “I just think it’s so smart what CBS is doing,” he said sarcastically. “I just think it’s such a good move to take this show off the air and then also ruin your evening news and then reduce 60 Minutes to, like, six good ones.”
He added that Colbert has “maintained such grace” throughout the process of the show being cancelled. “I’m having fun with my friends,” Colbert explained. “That’s how.” He added that he learned how to be a good host under a lot from pressure from Stewart himself.
Stewart shared some advice he got from David Letterman at the end of his short-lived late-night show, The Jon Stewart Show, which ran on MTV from 1993 to 1995. “He said, ‘Don’t confuse cancellation with failure,’” Stewart said. “I thought that was profound. But then he said, ‘But in this case it is also a failure.’”
The pair traded stories about being fired in the past, including when Stewart was working as a stock boy at Woolworths and lost his job, and took a few more digs at CBS and Paramount. Colbert noted that after this week The Daily Show will be the only late-night show left in Paramount’s networks.
“Here’s the saving grace that I think that I have,” Stewart replied. “I don’t think Trump has cable.” He added, more seriously, “What upsets me about this situation is that first of all you’re just a tremendous human and one of my favorite people. And second of all that I’ve seen your talents from Exit 57 to Strangers With Candy to writing. He can do whatever he wants to do. But the ubiquitous bloviating of the commander-in-chief has put us all as defined as who we are in opposition to him. And it’s just a ridiculous framing. It’s a minute portion of the joy machine you call your show.”
Stewart later surprised Colbert with a few gifts to celebrate his time on The Late Show. “Everybody has been coming up with a bit,” he reflected. “They sang you a song, they wrote you a poem. I am not talented, so I’m not doing any of that. And also, why do that? An ephemeral wind of nothing that blows away like humbug. You deserve something tangible. Something you’ve earned. You deserve a gift that benefits the sacrifice and work that you have put into this show, and that can show you the life you can lead and the life that I am leading now that I’m not really in show business. So, boys, bring it out.”
Staffers then brought out two luxury recliners for Stewart and Colbert. “You’re going to enjoy watching Matlock in this motherfucker,” Stewart said.
He then introduced his second gift. “This tribute isn’t complete,” Stewart continued. “Stephen, this tribute doesn’t represent the joy that you brought to me as my friend and the joy that you brought to this country as one of its leading entertainers. What this moment needs is something so much more. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ms. Andra Day.”
Day performed her 2015 song “Rise Up” to close out the interview, offering a joyful rendition as the two late-night hosts sat in their new chairs.
Last year, CBS announced it was cancelling The Late Show, citing the decision as a “financial” one. The final episode will air on May 21. It’s been speculated that CBS’s parent company Paramount pulled the plug to curry favor with Donald Trump and the FCC to ensure a merger between Paramount and Skydance would go through.
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