Stephen Colbert’s Wife Made Him Tell His Staff About His Show’s Cancellation ASAP

In a New York City late-night meetup last night, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel guested on each other’s shows in a moment of solidarity against Donald Trump’s attacks on their shows. 

It was during Colbert’s interview with Kimmel that he shared more about the days surrounding the moment he learned about The Late Show getting canceled. The news was obviously devastating, and Colbert wasn’t inclined to immediately share it with the 200 people who worked for him. In fact, he considered waiting until after the show came back from summer break, to give himself some time to figure out what to say. 

But his wife wasn’t supportive of the “wait for the right time” approach Colbert wanted to take. Evelyn McGee-Colbert instead made sure he gave his staff as much notice as humanly possible. 

“She said, ‘Are you going to tell the staff?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. Maybe I will tell them after the summer break,’” Colbert explained to Kimmel. “She said, ‘You are going to tell them tomorrow.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ She said, ‘I am coming to work with you tomorrow because I think you are telling your staff.’”

It was no empty threat, so Colbert did make the announcement. It wasn’t easy though.  

“I get up in the elevator,” Colbert continued. “I had sweat through my shirt. I was so nervous about doing it. There was nothing on the prompter. I fucked up twice. I had to restart, and the audience thought it was a bit. They started going, ‘You can do it. Come on Steve. You can do it.’ I always messed up on the sentence that told them what was happening. I got to the sentence that told them what was happening, and they didn’t laugh. That is it. That’s how I did it.”

Colbert also revealed that he himself got the news of his cancellation on a delay. His manager waited a week to tell the host, because he was on vacation when the news broke.