‘Anyone Hiring?’ Stephen Colbert Gets Raucous Ovation After Emmy Win — Salutes CBS Despite Show Cancellation
“And the Emmy goes to… the Late Show with Stephen Colbert!”
With that announcement on Sunday night from 7-time Emmy award winning actor Bryan Cranston, the crowd at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles went absolutely wild. For nearly a full minute, the audience celebrated Colbert — as the CBS late night host and members of his team made their way to the stage.
“Stephen! Stephen!” The crowd chanted — as the Late Show with Stephen Colbert won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Sunday night, its first victory in the category after eight straight losses.
A visibly touched Colbert waited for the cheers to subside, and then rattled off a list of acknowledgements. Among those he recognized was CBS — the network which announced in July that it is pulling the plug on his show.
“I want to thank CBS for giving us the privilege to be part of the late night tradition, which I hope continues long after we’re no longer doing this show,” Colbert said.
The Late Show will end its run in May, with CBS claiming the cancellation was merely a “financial decision.” However, the news came down weeks after CBS’s parent company, Paramount, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump — leading to speculation that the network may have dumped Colbert in an effort to further appease Trump.
Colbert seemed to make a reference to Trump in the closing passage of his acceptance speech Sunday night. Here was how he wrapped it:
“Ten years ago, in September of 2015, Spike Jonze stopped by my office and said, ‘Hey, what do you want this show to be about?’ And I said, ‘Ah, Spike, I don’t know how you could do it. But I’d kind of like to do a late night show, you know, a late-night comedy show that was about love.’ And I don’t know if I ever figured that out.
“But at a certain point — and you can guess what that point was — I realized that in some ways we were doing a late night comedy show about loss. And that’s related to love. Because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it. And 10 years later in September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America! Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”
Earlier in the evening, Colbert made light of his near-term employment prospects while presenting the show’s first award.
“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert joked.
Watch above, via CBS.
