Stephen Colbert is back on late-night TV!
Nearly four months after the end of "The Late Show," Colbert sat down as a guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Tuesday, Sept. 15, marking his first late-night appearance since his CBS departure.
"Thank you for having me back. Late-night TV! I remember it well," Colbert said. "Many fond memories of this."
But when Jimmy Kimmel asked Colbert if he ever thinks about late-night these days, he quickly shot back, "Nope!"
"I have an opportunity to not think about the news every day, and I took it," Colbert added.
The episode came one day after "The Late Show" won outstanding variety series at the Primetime Emmys on Sept. 14 in a category that also included Kimmel's show. It was the second consecutive year that "The Late Show" won in the top
late-night category, though Colbert had campaigned for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" to receive the award.
Colbert had previously revealed that his wife hates the beard he's been sporting recently, and he promised her he would shave it off if he won the Emmy. So the Kimmel interview was as good a place as any to do so: Near the end of the appearance, Kimmel handed Colbert a pair of clippers, and Colbert started to shave right there in front of the audience. When the show returned from a commercial, Colbert was back to his clean-shaven self.
"Now I recognize you," Kimmel quipped.
Stephen Colbert talks writing 'Lord of the Rings' with son Peter McGee
Colbert is currently at work on writing a new "Lord of the Rings" movie with his son, Peter McGee, and longtime "Lord of the Rings" screenwriter Philippa Boyens. He has been in New Zealand working on the film, which has a working title of "The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past" and is based on six chapters in "The Fellowship of the Ring" that were not adapted into the movie version.
On "Kimmel," Colbert said his son "understands screenwriting better than I do," and "I'm there just because I'm incredibly obsessive about 'The Lord of the Rings,'" though he has learned through the process that his son may know more about the series than him.
The comedian didn't reveal any new details about the film, though he shared an amusing anecdote about having lunch with Steven Spielberg and refusing to tell the director anything about the project because he was afraid he'd get in trouble. Boyens later chastised him for this by saying, "You idiot, he might have had a good idea!"
Colbert called New Zealand the "loveliest country," though he joked he's "now a criminal" there because he was pulled over by a hilariously nice cop while picking up his wife and son John from the airport. He called his son on the phone mid-interview for help recreating the interaction, with John playing the friendly cop.
Stephen Colbert's gift to Jimmy Kimmel
Elsewhere in the interview, Colbert shared that he now has 40 of his suits from the "Late Show" wardrobe, which are sitting in a guest bedroom at his house. The appearance ended with Colbert revealing he gifted Kimmel his famed Captain America shield, which he received from Marvel in 2007 and was part of his set both on "The Colbert Report" and "The Late Show." Kimmel installed it on a podium that faces him while he's delivering his monologue.
"I want to be able to see it when I'm doing the monologue every night," Kimmel said, adding it will hang there "for all time – or at least however much time we have left."
Stephen Colbert Emmys win comes after 'Late Show' cancellation
CBS controversially canceled "The Late Show" in 2025, giving Colbert about a year to take his final bow. Critics questioned the timing of the move, suggesting the network was trying to appease the Trump administration at a time when its parent company, Paramount, was going through a merger with Skydance that required administration approval.
CBS, though, said the decision was purely financial. Colbert was known for being one of President Donald Trump's most vocal critics on late-night TV, and Trump celebrated the end of "The Late Show."
Though their shows competed with each other on different networks, Colbert and Kimmel have supported one another over the years and have both appeared as guests on the other's program. One of Colbert's final "Late Show" episodes featured an interview with Kimmel and fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, during which Kimmel shared "outrage that your show is being thrown off the air."
Colbert has not revealed any plans for another show to follow up "The Late Show." Speaking to reporters at the Emmy Awards, he said writing "The Lord of the Rings" has been a "full-time job," and in terms of another TV series, "I've got nothing. What, do you know somebody? Because we're all looking for work at this point."
Colbert chose to avoid getting into politics both in his Kimmel interview and at the Emmys. In an interview with Variety and CNN at the Emmys, he playfully pretended to not hear a question about whether his show was canceled because of Trump.
And in his acceptance speech, Colbert did not mention or even allude to Trump, nor did he reference any of the controversy surrounding the end of his show. Instead, he used the time to spotlight his staff and urge the industry to give them jobs.
"Hire them," he said. "They will make your show better, and they will make your day easier."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen Colbert returns to late-night TV, shaves beard on 'Kimmel'
