Stephen Colbert was honored at the 2026 Writers Guild Awards with the Walter Bernstein Award, given to someone who has used creativity, grace and courage to confront social injustice in the face of adversity.
but Late show The host, known for his sharp criticism of the Trump administration and whose show is ending in just over two months due to what CBS called a “purely financial decision” amid a challenging linear television environment, rejected comparisons between him and Bernstein.
Speaking about researching Bernstein before receiving the award, Colbert said he was unsure why he did not realize that “the Hollywood blacklist was not government policy.”
He continued: “The blacklist was not a law, a regulation, or an executive order. It was a voluntary, industry-wide agreement to deny work to left-leaning artists for fear that some members of the government would publicly attack those artists’ parent company because of the union to which they belonged. It was this threat, only the threat of trouble, that ended many careers. Now while being associated with Mr. Bernstein in any way is a great honor, I want to be clear that I do not deserve this implication.” In parallel.”
“This is not the 1950s,” he added. “This is not the Red Scare. As far as I can tell, no one is inciting a revolution late at night. As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was supposed to be televised, but then Paramount bought it.”
Colbert joked, poking fun at reports about it Late ShowFinancial losses: “Apparently the Revolution was losing about $40 million a year – and had to be eliminated. I think the Revolution is considering creating a spin-off group.”
Beyond those initial quips, Colbert did address the political forces that some have suggested may have contributed to the end of his show, but he did look back on his time working with Robert Smigel, to whom he presented the honor and with whom Colbert worked alongside for a short period on the show. Dana Carvey Showand used the time on stage to praise his 20 writers, who were not nominated for Writers Guild Awards this year, naming and listing fun facts about each of them and sharing jokes they wrote that didn’t make it to the air.
The jokes include barbs about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade (“No abortion, good luck”), Donald Trump saying that if Ivanka Trump wasn’t his daughter he might be “dating her,” and claiming that Louis CK, during #MeToo-era reports of sexual misconduct by the comedian, took off all his clothes to masturbate: “Oh my God, he’s masturbating like a little kid pooping.”
He also shared a brief joke about OpenAI allowing users to create adult content, with one analyst arguing that the move could “boost” OpenAI as it prompts people to sign up for paid subscriptions.
“Oh, that’s so desperate,” Colbert said as he read the joke. “It’s as if McDonald’s changed their slogan to ‘We suck dick now.'”
The line was cut off several times by Colbert, who pointed out that ad sales didn’t object to the joke, but it didn’t die on his staff, and he even made her wear a Christmas gift sweater with a McDonald’s logo and the caption, “We’re sucking dick now.” Colbert pulled the garment on, and wore it for the rest of his speech.
“If you like any of these ideas, please hire these great people,” Colbert said of his staff, who like the host will be out of a job after the last meeting. Late show It will air on May 21. “They’re the best writing team I’ve ever had on any show, and I loved our time together, which wasn’t as long as I’d like,” he said. “I started out on Late Night as one of them. Thanks to Robert and Dana Carvey and Jon Stewart and so many others, I ended up in front of the camera every night, which is a very good job that comes with its own responsibilities, which means you can’t be in the writers’ room as much as you used to.”
He added: “For some, hosting may seem like a difficult task, and sometimes it is, but what is also difficult is hearing laughter from the room down the hall and not being able to enter.” “If you’re lucky enough to be in that room, you’ll always want to be in that voice. And what’s going to be really hard is missing those people, who despite the new hell — whatever it is — that the news is hitting, they make that beautiful sound happen every day. So to them, to all of you, to Walter Bernstein, to our union, thank you very much.”
Despite CBS claiming the decision is over Late Show It was just “financial,” and there was widespread speculation about other possible reasons for the cancellation, as Colbert was a prominent critic of President Donald Trump, and just days before news broke of the cancellation. Late showAt the end of the film, Colbert criticized parent company Paramount’s controversial $16 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Trump over… 60 minutes An interview with his 2024 rival, former Vice President Kamala Harris. When announced Late ShowAt the end of the show, Paramount insisted that the move was “in no way related to the performance of the show, its content, or other matters occurring at Paramount.”
Some observers remained unconvinced, including the Writers Guild, which a day after the cancellation was announced asked New York State Attorney General Letitia James to open an investigation into “possible wrongdoing” at Paramount Global, expressing concerns that the cancellation would be eliminated. Late show It was a form of bribery.
The union stated, “Cancellation is part of the job, but a company terminating the offer in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society.” “Paramount’s decision comes against the backdrop of ongoing attacks on the free press by President Trump, through lawsuits against CBS and ABC, threats to sue media organizations for critical coverage and an unreasonable defunding of PBS and NPR.”
Trump celebrated the news Late show Cancellation on its Truth Social platform.
“I absolutely love firing Colbert,” the president wrote the day after the cancellation was announced. “His talent was below his ratings. I heard Jimmy Kimmel is next.”
Less than two months after Colbert’s announcement Late show It was cancelled, and the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show.
In that speech, Colbert said that while he initially intended to do a late-night show about love, he later realized “We were doing a late-night comedy show about loss. And that’s connected to love, because sometimes you don’t really know how much you love something until you feel like you might lose it. Ten years later, in September 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to take you down, be Crazy and punchy.” “Higher floor.”
While Colbert has yet to announce his next move (he insisted at the Emmys that he was focused on ending the show as “beautifully” as possible), he told fellow host Seth Meyers on Late Night in January that the ending “feels real now” and that he’s “not happy about it.” Colbert added that although he will miss the people he works with, and with whom he has collaborated for decades, he pledged that he and his longtime collaborators “will do something else together.”
