CBS isn’t softening the blow for Stephen Colbert.
The soon-to-be former late-night host said his staff is “fired” immediately following his last episode on May 21, and the host will essentially be racing to clear the building.
Colbert made the reveal during a discussion on the “emergency” reprisal of the Strike Force Five podcast with fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Jimmy Fallon.
“No one’s got a job after that night,” Colbert said. “I think the next day, everyone’s fired. I think maybe the crew has some time to clear out like the studio, but the staff all has to be gone.”
“We all have to be out by the next Friday,” Colbert explained. “We got to get our s--t out of here.”
The detail left Kimmel perplexed, as he asked to confirm, “You have to be out in one week’s time?”
“I think they’re going to start tearing s--t out immediately,” Colbert said. “I know my staff is not paid, like the next day. I’m already packed. I’ve already packed my office.” Kimmel replied, “Wow.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment.
CBS parent company Paramount, on the verge of a merger with Trump-friendly company Skydance, announced that The Late Show would end just days after Colbert blasted its $16 million “big fat bribe,” settlement to President Donald Trump.
The company has insisted that the show was canceled for “purely financial reasons,” but fellow late-night hosts David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel have each called foul on the explanation.
Kimmel called the subsequent “insider” reporting that The Late Show was losing CBS $40 million a year “nonsensical.” Letterman, who will make his second-ever appearance on Colbert’s iteration of the show he created on Thursday, blasted CBS executives as “lying weasels.”
Colbert has stopped short of explicitly accusing CBS of canceling his show for his remarks, but has voiced his suspicions. “Less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed,” he told The New York Times last month.
During the discussion about Colbert’s rush to clear out, Fallon interjected, pointing out that Letterman received similar treatment from the network. “They threw his s--t outside,” Oliver added, as Fallon recalled, “He left, he went outside and saw his stuff going in the dumpster from his set.”
“It’s cool they learned a lesson from that,” Meyers quipped.
Colbert said the reality that his show is ending is setting in, and he’s starting to feel it. “The rising tide of emotion has reached my chin, and now the only thing to do is take a deep breath and swim like hell to May 21st,” he told the hosts.
He added that he was grateful there would be a few opportunities for “perspective” at the same time as his big farewell.
“My son graduates college on the 18th. My show ends on the 21st. My brother gets married on the 23rd,” he said, “So, I’m kind of sandwiched between things that are like a little more important, like, you know, a little perspective.”
