The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has a very football-centric night planned for its first-ever post-AFC Championship Sunday night episode, airing later this month.
Stephen Colbert‘s lead guest on Sunday January 26th will be Deion Sanders. The former NFL and MLB player now coaches college team the Colorado Buffaloes in the NCAA. Sanders’ Late Show booking comes hot on the heels of an ESPN report that he’s in early talks to replace Mike McCarthy as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, which would mark his first time coaching an NFL team.
Colbert’s NFL-adjacent lineup also extends to his musical guest, with country artist Kane Brown, who scheduled to perform. Brown has enjoyed a long association with the league, memorably performing at the 2020 Thanksgiving halftime show and at various other NFL events over the years.
Colbert’s Sunday-night episode follows a similar efforts by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which has staged a number of Sunday night episodes following Sunday Night Football since 2019. Fallon’s most recent post NFL Sunday night episode in November 2024 ended up delivering his largest audience in two months.
While Colbert has hosted four post-Super Bowl shows going back to 2016, this will mark the first year he’s hosted a post-game Sunday night episode earlier in the NFL playoffs.
The Late Show ‘s special post-AFC Championship episode is scheduled to air on CBS Sunday January 26th at approximately 11:35pm ET/8:35 pm PT. It will follow the series premiere of the network’s new medical mystery series Watson, starring Morris Chestnut.
