Barack Obama is set to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, in one of the final episodes before Colbert’s show comes to an end.
Colbert, 61, announced that the former president will appear on his late show on May 5.
“Folks, before we get started, I have a quick but exciting announcement,” Colbert said on Thursday night at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater. “Tuesday, May 5, here on The Late Show, in his first interview from the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, I will be sitting down with former President Barack Obama.”
The Obama Foundation’s official Instagram account replied to The Late Show’s announcement in the comments, writing, “Couch booked. Volume up. Ready to go. 🇺🇸”
Obama, 64, will appear on the show from the Barack Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling 19.3-acre campus in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The center, which houses Obama’s nonprofit foundation, is officially opening on June 19.
The former president and the late-night show host have had several televised interviews. Obama appeared three times on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and twice on CBS’s Late Show. In 2016, Obama appeared on the latter series, months before his presidency ended. Colbert interviewed him once again in 2020, in a conversation on the precipice of the Biden-Harris administration entering the White House.
Obama’s upcoming conversation on The Late Show is significant, as Colbert is ending his decade-long stint as a CBS host this May.
CBS pulled the plug on Colbert’s series just days after the TV veteran criticized parent company Paramount for settling a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with current President Donald Trump. While CBS insisted it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
The company called Colbert “irreplaceable” and said its decision was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The wider industry condemned the show’s shock cancellation.
The Trump administration has been at war with late-night TV over the past year. The president has openly criticized TV’s most recognizable hosts, slamming Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.
“I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” the 79-year-old president posted last July. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
In December, the president went on a tirade against Colbert once again, writing on Truth Social, “Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success. Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”
Colbert, along with other late-night colleagues, is consistently and openly critical of the president and his administration.
The last episode of The Late Show will air on May 21.
