The Late Show with Stephen Colbert may be over, but in a promising sign for its final award season chances, the Television Critics Association has just nominated Colbert’s cancelled CBS series for its most prestigious honor.
The TCA Awards, an annual precursor to the Primetime Emmy Awards, has named The Late Show one of nine nominees for Program of the Year, which honors one show that had a major impact on the medium and culture.
That’s rare air for a late-night talk show. The Late Show’s nomination marks the first time a late-night talk show has cracked the Program of the Year lineup in two decades.
Should Colbert and company win, it would be only the second time in TCA Awards history that a late-night show has taken home the group’s top honor. The first time came in 1994, when Late Show with David Letterman won Program of the Year for its very first season on CBS.
Colbert faces some steep competition. This year’s other Program of the Year nominees are The Comeback, Hacks, Heated Rivalry, Industry, The Pitt, Pluribus, Shrinking, and Widow’s Bay. The Pitt enters the race with some especially recent TCA momentum, having won the top prize last year.
Even if The Late Show doesn’t end up taking home Program of the Year, it has a second chance elsewhere on the ballot. Colbert’s show is also nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Variety, Talk or Sketch, where it will face The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Muppet Show: Sabrina Carpenter, and Saturday Night Live.
That category has been a familiar one for The Late Show in recent years: Colbert’s show has racked up six nominations over the past eight years, but has yet to win. Last Week Tonight, meanwhile, has taken the prize three times, winning in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
The TCA Award for Program of the Year has been handed out since 1985, when the British miniseries The Jewel in the Crown became its first recipient. Unlike category-specific prizes, Program of the Year pits dramas, comedies, limited series, and variety shows against one another.
Only two programs have won the award more than once: The Sopranos, which won in 1999 and 2001, and Breaking Bad, which won in 2013 and 2014. Game of Thrones holds the record for the most nominations in the category, with seven.
For The Late Show, the nomination lands as both a salute from the nation’s critics and a bit of full-circle CBS late-night history. The Late Show began its CBS run with a TCA Program of the Year win for Letterman. Three decades later, the show’s final season with Colbert has the chance to join it.
For a complete list of nominations across all categories of this year’s TCA Awards, our pal Matt Mitovich has the full scoop at his excellent site Matt’s Inside Line.
TCA Award winners will be announced later this summer.
