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Stephen Colbert is focused on the present instead of looking too far into the future.
Speaking to PEOPLE and other outlets in the press room at the 2025 Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 14, the 61-year-old TV host reflected on the impending end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was canceled after 10 seasons in July.
While he’s joked about what’s next — even bringing out his headshot and resume while presenting an award at the ceremony — Colbert says that he’s mostly excited to get back to work.
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“I love what we do, and I want to go to work on Tuesday and for the next nine months with these people and work hard to have fun,” he says. “We do the show with each other, we do the show for each other every day. And I have the privilege and responsibility of that day to share with the audience what we did. And I love it.”
He continues, saying, “And I know it’s coming to the end in May, but I’m going to savor every day of it. I want to land this plane. Absolutely beautiful. And I got nothing else on my mind.”
During the awards ceremony, which took place at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, Colbert’s show took home the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series after being nominated in the category for three consecutive years.
His win was met with a standing ovation from celebrities in the audience.
“It was really nice,” he says about the warm reception. “I’ll tell you this: I came out here a lot when I was a young man looking for work. Uh, winning one of these and having the audience stand up is way better than coming up for pilot season.”
Colbert adds, “I was very grateful.”
The longtime host also praised his team, acknowledging the work that goes on behind the scenes to “really make [the show] possible.”
Asked if there are moments in his career that particularly stand out, Colbert says that his answer isn’t “the sexiest.”
“The things that stand out to me, I’m most grateful for, are the days when we don’t think we’ve got anything,” he admits. “We don’t think that the news has cooperated. The universe has not conspired to give us anything to be funny about.”
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As for why, he explains, “And these people put their heads down and grind it out. And by the time I get there, 3:00 into rehearsal, knowing what the assignments were that morning at 10:30, ’cause I was in that morning, and then seeing what they did with it, that’s a highlight every day. And the harder the day was, the more of a highlight it is.”
Colbert is focused on a safe landing, and he knows that’s not possible without the writers, whom he describes as “the engine that drives us every day.”
For the star, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert “added our own little chapter” to the storied history of late-night TV, which he describes as “one of the oldest forms on television.”
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That means something to him.
“There aren’t shows like this elsewhere in the world. There are chat shows, but nothing like a late-night show like this,” Colbert says.
He continues: “It makes me incredibly proud to be able to look back and say, in some small way, we’re connected all the way through, you know… [David Letterman] to Johnny [Carson], to Jack [Paar] to Steve Allen. Not to, you know, run the game, but through the Tonight Show. But those are the originators of the form. And to win this, to be recognized for what we managed to contribute to this form in our own way is a great testament to everybody’s work here. And I’m incredibly proud to be some small part of that legacy.”
