Do we like Stephen Colbert?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent and on the right side for years, with one crude joke on the record and a lot of real good to set against it.
Colbert was born in Washington DC in 1964. When he was ten, his father and two of his brothers died in a plane crash, and he withdrew into reading sci-fi and fantasy. He went through Chicago's Second City, co-created Strangers with Candy, joined The Daily Show in 1997, then ran The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014 before taking over The Late Show in 2015. He has said he lost his faith after the family losses, "to my great grief", and later returned to Catholicism.
The messy chapter is the last year. In February 2026 CBS lawyers stepped in on his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, citing the FCC's equal time rules, and it went online only. Colbert blamed "bullies" using old rules against Trump critics. CBS said it had only given legal guidance. Talarico claimed the FCC itself refused to air it, which CNN's report says is wrong because CBS made the call.
The pattern is a bloke who will bite his own employer. In 2018 he told his audience that "accountability is meaningless, unless it's for everybody" after the New Yorker reported accusations against CBS boss Les Moonves. Moonves said he may have made some women uncomfortable but never used his position to harm careers. Colbert's last season also followed his on-air criticism of Paramount over its $16 million settlement with Trump.
The finale aired on 21 May 2026, with Paul McCartney and Tig Notaro among the guests. Colbert has since signed on to co-write a Lord of the Rings film with Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee, drawn from early Fellowship chapters Peter Jackson never adapted. He said he was "going to be free starting this summer". An October 2026 report says Jackson confirmed the project is still going. I found nothing newer on a podcast or another show.
The real good is hands-on. Colbert sits on the board of DonorsChoose and in 2015 announced he and partners would fund every South Carolina classroom project listed on the site, about $800,000 raised partly by auctioning his old Colbert Report set. He also has 10 Primetime Emmys to his name, though the classrooms say more about him.
No court has found against him, and I found no accusations of misconduct aimed at him. He's a comic, so there's the odd cheap gag, but the pattern is a bloke who punches up, backs queer people and funds teachers. Fair dinkum, a good one.