Stephen Colbert Bids Heartfelt Goodbye to Outgoing Showrunner and New CNN Boss Chris Licht: ‘He Earned the Respect of All of Us’

Stephen Colbert gave a glowing goodbye to his outgoing showrunner Chris Licht, who is set to replace Jeff Zucker as chairman and CEO of CNN Global.

“Our own Chris Licht, right over there at that podium, is leaving this show to take over CNN,” Colbert said on Monday’s The Late Show, adding, “I trained the next president of CNN, so I believe legally CNN now stands for the Colbert News Network.”

Licht was announced as CNN’s next president over the weekend, following Zucker’s shocking resignation earlier this month.

“I am a journalist at heart. While I have enjoyed every minute at The Late Show, I am joining CNN because I feel a genuine pull to return to news at such a critical moment in history,” Licht said in a letter to the network’s team. “CNN is uniquely positioned to be a beacon of meaningful, impactful journalism for the world. I am committed to upholding and building on CNN’s legacy.”

Addressing Licht’s big move, Colbert went on to highlight the things he was going to miss about his showrunner, admitting that he was not sure he would like him at first.

“We’re going to miss all sorts of things about Chris. Chris we’re going to miss your fleece vests, your strange loyalty to the folks at Untuckit, we’ll miss your stories of how many billionaires you know, and I personally will miss the frantic, flailing hand gestures when I go 38 minutes with Neil DeGrasse Tyson or even mention The Lord of the Rings.”

Colbert shared that Licht was a “stickler for the rules,” quipping that he would tell staff to “have a good time, not a great time” while at parties.

“But he’s leaving, so screw it,” the host cracked. “This Christmas, I’m inaugurating the Chris Licht commemorative beer flume.”

The host then remembered Licht’s first days on the job, noting that those at The Late Show are “all show folk,” while Licht had a history working on news shows, such as This Morning at CBS and MSNBC’s Morning Joe. 

“But I could tell he was right for the job because even though he came after some pretty prominent positions already — I mean, [Joe Scarborough] country — he arrived knowing what he didn’t know, which was anything about comedy or show business, so he approached the job with a level of humility that is rare in executives,” Colbert said.

Colbert then turned to address Licht directly, praising his showrunner’s leadership”

Here’s the thing. There are bosses, and then there are leaders. Bosses tell you what to do. Leaders work as hard as you do to do what needs to be done. And that’s what you did. And that is why he earned the respect of all of us here who live in the clown car. We showed him what we really wanted to do, which is the show that we do now, and he immediately started creating the lines of communication, the lanes of responsibility and the respectful workplace that makes creative ambition at this speed possible, and I’m happy that CNN will now benefit from all of his wisdom.

Watch above, via CBS.