If Stephen Colbert were out to dinner with his fellow late-night hosts, who would be most likely to pick up the bill and who would excuse themselves to go to the bathroom just as the bill arrived?
That was the question an audience member asked the Late Show host before a recent taping, and you can bet that the improv-trained Colbert had a quick response.
In a clip posted to the show’s Instagram account, Colbert tells the audience member that he has, in fact, been out to eat with the other hosts, and that “Kimmel is the one most likely to pick up the bill. He’s a very generous guy.”
“The one most likely to go to the bathroom when the bill came would be John Oliver,” he added to a big laugh from the crowd.
“Not because he isn’t like a nice generous guy. He has a tiny bladder,” Colbert joked. “Always going to the bathroom.”
As Bill Carter (the author of “The Late Shift” and “The War For Late Night,” two books about past infighting among late-night hosts) recently wrote for LateNighter, today’s late-night hosts may be fighting for viewers, but they are not fighting with each other.
Most everyone has appeared on the others’ shows, and in an unprecedented show of comradery, Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver co-hosted a podcast together during the 2023 Writers strike to raise funds for out of work staff members.
Our guess? When this group is out to dinner, they go Dutch.