Stephen Colbert’s Show Has Been Shut Down Due To Huge Health Concerns
Well, this isn't good.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has gone dark, at least for a little while. Back in April, the late night talk show canceled an episode after its host tested positive for Covid-19. While apparently he hasn’t tested positive a second time, Colbert seems to think he has the bug again and so taping for The Late Show has been cancelled for the near future.
The Late Show delivered the news over Twitter, telling fans that Stephen Colbert was “experiencing symptoms consistent with a recurrence of COVID.” The message continues that the host will be “isolating for a few additional days.” In the meantime, no new episodes will be taped “until further notice.” You can see The Late Show‘s social media announcement below.
Making sure no one forgets that his sense of humor is still intact, Stephen Colbert responded to the announcement 10 minutes later. Rather than reiterating his possible illness or apologizing, the host characteristically compared it to, say.. Caddyshack 2. Or The Godfather: Part III. You can see his response below.
In spite of many acting as if the Covid-19 pandemic is a thing of the past, the list of celebrities who have contracted the disease in the past few months alone should be concerning; even when just considering talk show hosts. According to US Weekly‘s Covid-19 celebrity roundup, Stephen Colbert’s Covid diagnosis was — at some point this year — shared by Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Whoopi Goldberg, Jenna Bush Hager, Ana Navarro, James Corden, and Hoda Kotb. And that’s just from the talk shows. Look beyond them and you get Amy Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Sarah Jessica Parker, Taron Egerton, Lupita Nyong’o, Matthew Broderick, Sean Penn, Daniel Craig, Miley Cyrus, Dylan O’Brien, John Mayer, Justin Bieber, Queen Elizabeth II, Simon Cowell, Tori Spelling, and Elton freakin’ John — the Rocketman himself. And that’s still just a sampling of the list. Look at that “hoax” illness go!
On Monday, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert fans hoping to see Sarah Silverman, Shaquile O’Neal, and Sharon Van Etten had to do without. According to Deadline, the other guests presumed to be cut from appearing this week include Jean Smart, Hugh Dancy, Jake Tapper, Ken Jeong, Regina Spektor, and the musical duo Beach House. There’s no word on when taping will resume or if any of the would-be guests will be rescheduled.
Stephen Colbert first started making audiences laugh on a national scale as a correspondent on The Daily Show when Jon Stewart was still hosting. In 2005 he graduated to his own show, The Colbert Report — which Colbert always pronounced as “The Colbert Rapport” — which looked at the same news The Daily Show covered in a different way. Unlike Stewart, Colbert hosted the show as a satirical take on right wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly. The show made Colbert a household name, and gave him the chance to thumb his nose at the powerful, as he famously did in a controversial speech at 2006’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The Colbert Report ended in 2014, and the following year the eponymous comedian began hosting The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
