The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going out on an Emmy high.
The CBS late-night show earned nine Emmy nominations for its final season Wednesday, the most the show proper has received in a single year since Stephen Colbert took over the franchise in 2015.
Add in a nomination for Colbert Before Air, the show’s YouTube series, and the Colbert camp’s final-season tally rises to ten.
The show proper was nominated for Outstanding Variety Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series, Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Series, Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special, and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming for its series finale.
Colbert Before Air landed its nomination in Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series.
The haul gives The Late Show one more awards-season victory lap following its final stretch on CBS. It also marks a new high-water mark for a show that, while long a fixture in the talk-series race, only recently broke through with the Television Academy in a major way.
Last year, The Late Show won its first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series, along with a Creative Arts Emmy for directing. Those wins gave Colbert’s show its biggest Emmy moment to date. Now, its final season has raised the bar again—at least in terms of nominations.
The breadth of the recognition is notable, too. Beyond the headline Variety Series, Writing, and Directing nominations, the show’s below-the-line team was recognized across production design, lighting, camerawork, sound, music, and editing—a fitting sendoff for a series whose final months were as much about the people making the show as the host behind the desk.
Final-round Emmy voting begins August 17 and runs through August 26 at 10 p.m. PT. Winners will be announced September 14, when the 78th Emmy Awards air live on NBC and Peacock from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
how many reports we have left until cobert’s dead show from May because I was curious
Stephen Colbert reportedly found himself at a professional crossroads after “The Late Show” ended its run on CBS. Insiders claimed the longtime late-night host was struggling to decide what came next after spending nearly a decade behind the iconic desk.
The show’s cancellation marked the end of a major chapter in Colbert’s career. While fans continued speculating about his next move, the comedian largely stepped away from the spotlight and offered no clear indication of his future plans.
Insiders say Stephen Colbert is struggling to settle on his next professional move
Colbert remained “heartbroken” in the weeks following “The Late Show’s” May 21 finale. The outlet cited comments from Hollywood insider Rob Shuter’s SubStack, where a source claimed the loss of the show had been deeply personal.
“This wasn’t just a job – it was his identity,” the insider told Rob Shuter’s SubStack. “Stephen poured everything into that show. Losing it has hit him hard.”
The source added that Colbert had largely kept to himself while trying to determine his next career move. “He’s always been the one holding everyone else together. Now he’s the one who needs time. He’s stepped away to figure out what comes next,” the insider said.
Colbert took over The Late Show on CBS in September 2015 after nearly a decade hosting The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. According to RadarOnline, many people close to him had heard very little from the host since the show’s conclusion, and it remained unclear whether he planned to return to television.
The outlet also reported that Colbert attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s July 3 wedding but appeared “unusually subdued and miserable,” a noticeable change from his typically upbeat public persona
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