The Late Show with Stephen Colbert took home late-night TV’s highest honor on Sunday night, winning Outstanding Talk Series at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. It’s only the show’s second Emmy win—its first came just last week at the Creative Arts Emmys—and the milestone was marked by an impassioned acceptance speech from Colbert himself.
Bounding to the stage, Colbert began by thanking CBS “for giving us the privilege to be part of the late-night tradition, which I hope continues long after we are no longer doing this show.”
He praised the more than 200 staffers who bring The Late Show to the air each night, calling them “the pros from Dover” and adding, “I am so proud to be one of you.” He also offered gratitude to the friends and colleagues who have supported him throughout the past 20 years, as well as to his wife, Evie McGee Colbert, whom he called “the real brains of the outfit,” and their three children.
Colbert’s tone grew more reflective as he dedicated the award to his parents, his in-laws, and his longtime assistant Amy Cole, who passed away last year. “A young woman who should be here tonight,” he said.
Stephen Colbert Accepts Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Series at 77th Emmy Awards pic.twitter.com/5ZWqvBAhE0
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) September 15, 2025
Colbert recalled a pivotal moment from September 2015, when filmmaker Spike Jonze asked what he wanted his version of The Late Show to be about. “I said, I don’t know how you could do it, but I’d like to do a late night comedy show that was about love,” Colbert said. “I don’t know if I ever figured that out, but at a certain point … I realized that in some ways we were doing a late night comedy show about loss. And that’s related to love, because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it.”
He closed on an emotional note that drew a standing ovation: “Ten years later, in September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.”
MAJOR UPSET WIN by Colbert~🥳🥳🥳
I feel like Colbert didn’t have to burn or diss CBS during his speech because the win alone and him, Cato, his internal team onstage alongside the rest of his 200 employees in the audience is a big fat FOCK YOU to the network
And at the end of the day, everybody won in some way; Colbert of course, Stewart with his EP role on the show, and Kimmel’s Emmys FYC billboard stunt paying off
And before anybody decides to jump into negative comments to ruin the mood, just save it for the next Colbert article here, or when he returns to NY Tuesday; we definitely needed a big W in the late night world and this is it~💙
I look forward to the post-Emmys episode 🤭
He’s definitely succeeded in making the show about love: we just love it when Evie is on!!! She’s wonderful in all ways, an audience favorite. Their love for each other is so visible and genuine, it’s a rare and beautiful thing on tedious TV.
Colbert is beloved, brilliant and deeply FUNNY. He will pop back up like a cork in a new sparkling pool, and CBS can continue to fester as the fetid cesspool of management they’ve got now. Ewwwww