©Courtesy of The Colbert Report
Although Stephen Colbert will be exiting as host of CBS’s The Late Show, he will be appearing in an episode on the third season of Elsbeth, a comedy-drama series also on CBS. Colbert had revealed in July that CBS had decided not only to dismiss him but to end The Late Show‘s franchise itself, with the final program slated to be broadcast in May of 2026.
Elsbeth, about an unconventional attorney who investigates murders in New York City, is a spin-off of the hit legal dramas The Good Wife and The Good Fight. According to published reports, Colbert will be portraying the host of a late-night talk show called Way Life with Scotty Bristol. The episode was reportedly shot just this week, but it may be many months before it will be shown.
Although CBS claimed the cancellation of Colbert’s show was purely a “financial decision,” David Letterman and others have claimed that politics also played a part in the situation. The Late Show was cancelled as CBS’s parent company Paramount was seeking federal approval from the FCC for its proposed merger with Skydance Media. President Trump had filed a lawsuit against the network, which agreed to settle it for $16 million just before the merger had been approved—a transaction that was vehemently criticized by Colbert as “a big, fat bribe.”
Vulture also reported that CBS’s invitation to cast the 61-year-old Colbert as the host of Way Life With Scotty Bristol might be traced to an earlier discussion Colbert had with Wendell Pierce, who plays the role of C. W. Wagner on the Elsbeth show. In February, Colber told Pierce that he wanted to play the role of a corpse, to which he replied, “I can make that happen. I know a guy who knows a guy. We can get you on.”