Late Night resistance

It was really no surprise after it was announced earlier this summer that Late Night with Stephen Colbert will end in spring 2026, that Stephen Colbert would then win the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series. When the show, which includes his name, was announced as a nominee, there was a huge roar from the audience, which led to thunderous applause when he won, with the crowd chanting his name.

He gave a lovely speech, acknowledging there are “200 incredible professionals” looking for jobs—he mentioned the size of his crew a couple times throughout the night, a tacit “it’s not me, it’s THEM” reminder that the people hurt by the show’s cancellation goes way beyond him—and he said, “Sometimes, you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it.” 

 

He got political without mentioning anything about a specific person, saying, “I have never loved my country more, God bless America!” which is probably going to confuse some people who cannot compute liberalism with patriotism. 

In the world of television, at least, the responsibility of resistance is currently falling hard on late-night talk show hosts, as it feels like they’re the only ones consistently reporting on the bullsh-t happening right in front of us, on multiple fronts. You know you’re in trouble when you’re relying on the court jester for real news. But last night they mostly stayed out of it. Colbert only obliquely referenced The Moment And All It Demands, and John Oliver kept his speech short and sweet, as instructed, though he did throw out an f-you to host Nate Bargatze (in jest, comedians do that). (2:48) 

 

Still, Colbert’s wish that late night continues past him is probably futile, we’re almost certainly witnessing the last generation of network late night talk shows. More informative, “edu-tainment” shows like Last Week Tonight might have a future, but we already know CBS won’t be replacing Colbert with a new host, The Late Show is ending entirely. So, if we’re stuck in a position of relying on talk show hosts to be our news anchors, in eight months we’re down a key figure. It’s troubling, not so much from a talk show perspective but just a general society one. We’re losing sources of information, we’re losing voices of opposition amidst an authoritarian regime. It SHOULDN’T be on talk show hosts to serve that purpose, but currently, no one else is really stepping up to the plate in a mainstream culture sense.

I don’t really know where we go from here. Late-night talk shows can’t anchor a resistance to authoritarianism, they can and should be, at best, microphones for the people who ARE doing that job. But there is a real and growing feeling of fear in public life, of people afraid of saying certain things for fear of losing jobs, etc. Forget the cancel culture of the 2010s, when consequences came for people who said reprehensible things, now you can be fired just for quoting someone else’s on-record remarks. I’ll be interested to see where Colbert lands next year, to see who is willing to take him on and risk Trump’s ire. I’m afraid by this time next year, though, no one will be willing to do that, and then we’ll REALLY be in the darkest timeline.