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Stephen Colbert
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Culture

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is the American comedian and host who ended an eleven-year run on CBS's The Late Show on May 21, 2026, then won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series on September 14, 2026 for that final season, ten months after the network cancelled the show. He returned to a late-night stage the following night as Jimmy Kimmel's guest, his first talk show appearance since the finale.

By · stats people · Updated September 16, 2026
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01

Where does Stephen Colbert live?

In Montclair, New Jersey, where he and his wife have lived since 2000. It is a half-hour commute from the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan, and he stayed there through the entire Late Show run rather than moving into the city. He grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and still talks about it as home. Sources: Wikipedia, CBS News.

02

What is Stephen Colbert's nationality?

He is American, born in Washington, D.C. in 1964 and raised mostly in South Carolina. The family name is French in origin, and his father changed the pronunciation from "Colbert" with a hard t to the silent-t version the host uses. Source: Wikipedia.

03

How old is Stephen Colbert?

He was born on 13 May 1964, which makes him 62 years old in September 2026. Source: Wikipedia.

04

How tall is Stephen Colbert?

Around 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in). Published figures sit between 5 ft 10.5 in and 5 ft 11 in depending on the source, so treat it as approximate rather than official. Source: CelebHeights.

05

Why did The Late Show with Stephen Colbert end?

CBS announced on 17 July 2025 that it was retiring the franchise in May 2026, and called it "purely a financial decision" against a shrinking late-night advertising market rather than a judgement on the show or its ratings. The timing, three days after Colbert criticised Paramount's settlement with Donald Trump, drew immediate suspicion from viewers and from politicians, and CBS rejected that reading. The network retired the whole Late Show brand, not just the host. Sources: CBS News, Rolling Stone, Variety.

06

When was the last episode of The Late Show?

Thursday 21 May 2026, the 1,801st episode of Colbert's run, which began on 8 September 2015. Paul McCartney was the final guest and closed the show with Hello, Goodbye, with Jon Batiste back at the piano and Elvis Costello on stage. Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd and Bryan Cranston all appeared. Sources: CNN, NBC News, Wikipedia.

07

Did Stephen Colbert win an Emmy in 2026?

Yes. The Late Show won Outstanding Variety Series at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on 14 September 2026, beating The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live. The final season took six Emmys in total, the most the show ever won in a single year. Sources: Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, Forbes.

08

What did Stephen Colbert say in his Emmy speech?

He used the win to ask the room to hire his former staff: "I just want to point out that if you like the comedy tonight, my old writers wrote it." Roughly 200 people lost their jobs when the show closed, and the speech was a pitch on their behalf rather than a victory lap. Sources: TheWrap, Forbes.

09

Is Stephen Colbert coming back to late night?

He appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 15 September 2026, his first talk show appearance since the finale, as a guest rather than a host. Reporting says his production team has a new television project in development, but no format, outlet or launch date has been confirmed, so anything beyond the Kimmel booking is unconfirmed. Sources: Screen Rant, MSN, Forbes.

10

What was The Colbert Report?

The Comedy Central satire he hosted from 17 October 2005 to 18 December 2014, in which he played a bloviating right-wing pundit also called Stephen Colbert. It span off from The Daily Show, won two Peabody Awards, and gave English the word truthiness. He dropped the character when he moved to CBS. Source: Wikipedia.

11

How many Emmys has Stephen Colbert won?

Eleven Primetime Emmys before the 2026 ceremony, counting three won as a Daily Show writer in 2004, 2005 and 2006, plus wins for The Colbert Report and for hosting the 2017 telecast. The 2026 variety series win adds to that total. Source: Wikipedia.

12

Who is Stephen Colbert's wife?

Evelyn McGee-Colbert, a producer and arts organiser from Charleston, South Carolina, whom he married in 1993. They have three children, Madeleine, Peter and John. She appeared on camera with him several times over the Late Show years, including during the 2020 episodes shot at home. Source: Wikipedia.

13

What happened to Stephen Colbert's father?

His father James Colbert Jr., a doctor and university administrator, and his brothers Peter and Paul died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 near Charlotte on 11 September 1974, when Colbert was ten. He was the youngest of eleven children, and has discussed the loss openly in interviews as something that shaped both his comedy and his Catholicism. Sources: Wikipedia, CBS News.

14

Where did Stephen Colbert go to college?

He started at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia in 1982 studying philosophy, transferred to Northwestern University in 1984, and graduated from its School of Communication in 1986 as a theatre major. He then joined Second City in Chicago, where Steve Carell and Amy Sedaris were among his colleagues. Source: Wikipedia.

Background

Who Is Stephen Colbert?

Stephen Colbert is an American comedian, writer and television host who spent twenty years at the centre of American late-night comedy and then spent 2026 being celebrated for a show that no longer exists. Born in Washington, D.C. on 13 May 1964 and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, he was the youngest of eleven children. When he was ten, his father and two of his brothers died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a loss he has returned to in interviews for decades and which he credits, without sentimentality, for a lot of how he works.

He came up the improv route: Northwestern, then Second City in Chicago, then sketch work on The Dana Carvey Show and Strangers with Candy. From 1997 to 2005 he was a correspondent on The Daily Show, and in October 2005 he took the fake-pundit persona he had been sharpening there into his own programme. The Colbert Report ran for nine years on Comedy Central, won two Peabody Awards, and worked as a sustained piece of character comedy at a scale nobody had attempted nightly before.

In September 2015 he replaced David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater, dropped the character, and hosted The Late Show under his own name for eleven years and 1,801 episodes. On 17 July 2025, CBS announced it was ending the franchise in May 2026. The network called it purely a financial decision about late-night economics. The announcement landed three days after Colbert had criticised a settlement between Paramount and Donald Trump on air, which is why the explanation was met with scepticism by viewers, by other hosts and by members of Congress. CBS has held its position. The final episode aired on 21 May 2026, with Paul McCartney closing the show on Hello, Goodbye.

Four months later the Television Academy handed the show its send-off. At the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on 14 September 2026, The Late Show won Outstanding Variety Series, the category created this year by merging talk and scripted variety into one, beating The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live. The final season collected six Emmys, its best haul ever. Colbert used the speech to advertise his unemployed writers rather than himself.

What comes next is genuinely unsettled. He turned up as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 15 September 2026, which was reported in some places as a comeback and is better described as a visit. His team is said to have a new television project in development, with no network, format or date attached to it publicly. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife Evelyn, teaches Sunday school, and is the most publicly devout person to have hosted a network comedy show in a long time. Sources: Wikipedia, CBS News, CNN, Deadline, Variety, Forbes.

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