How much would you pay to sit where The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s guests sat?
At least one person was willing to shell out more than 30 grand for the opportunity.
The latest batch of items added to Stephen Colbert’s “clearance sale” brought in nearly $90,000 worth of bids, with several items fetching five-figure price tags. Colbert had added the five new items to the everything-must-go charity auction earlier this month as part of a new recurring segment, “Late Show Home Shopping.”
Colbert’s guest chair, on which hundreds of interviewees have sat to take questions (and “Questionerts”), went for a stunning $30,300. (Colbert and John Oliver had thrown in a signed $100 bill to sweeten the pot, so the winning bidder is only out of pocket $30,200.) The Late Show will keep the chair through its May 21 finale before it’s carted off to the buyer.
Speaking of series finales, a pair of final scripts also brought in big money. A signed script from the last episode of The Colbert Report, paired with the yet-to-be-written script from The Late Show’s own grand finale, sold for $26,500.
Perhaps the most fun item of the bunch was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to raid The Late Show’s prop closet for 60 seconds. That experience—which Colbert said might be filmed for a future Late Show segment—was worth $16,900 to one bidder.
Rounding out the auction, a pair of glasses worn by Oliver during this month’s “Late Show Home Shopping” segment netted $5,800, while a furry hat worn by Colbert went for $9,450.
All told, this latest round of auction items generated $88,950 in winning bids, making it the second-most successful of Colbert’s four auction legs to date.
Colbert debuted the charity auction in December, netting over $175,000 in bids across 13 items. That round—which saw his COVID-era desk go for $14,800 and two VIP tickets to the Late Show finale sell for $111,100—resulted in a total payout of $169,727.99 to Colbert’s charity of choice, chef José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen.
A second leg of the auction brought in close to $40,000 more. A third pair of items Colbert announced exclusively on Late Night with Seth Meyers—a stolen rug from Capitol Hill and several Late Night cue cards—fetched nearly $14,500 total.
Love you Stephen! Always have and always will! It would take an F. Scott Fitzgerald or a Sondheim to do you justice. May you and your family prosper. I’m so proud of you. And so is God.