Stephen Colbert took the stage at the Emmy Awards Sunday night as a presenter, earning huge applause after his “The Late Show” was shockingly canceled earlier this year.
The crowd rose to its feet as soon as Colbert hit the stage, chanting “Stephen! Stephen! Stephen!” before Colbert presented the award for lead actor in a comedy series. “While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” the late-night host joked before taking out a resume complete with a vintage headshot. He promptly handed off the resume to Harrison Ford in hopes he could pass it along to Stephen Spielberg.
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” won its first Creative Artists Emmy Award last Sunday. The award was given in the outstanding directing for a variety series category. Ironically, the show achieved this milestone two months after CBS announced its cancellation. The long-running franchise, which began in 1993 as “The Late Show With David Letterman” and was taken over by Colbert in 2015, will conclude in May 2026.
Stephen Colbert earns a massive standing ovation at the #Emmys and jokes "Is anyone hiring?" pic.twitter.com/vepMYMXdSX
— Variety (@Variety) September 15, 2025
The cancellation is not without controversy, as it was announced just days after CBS parent company Paramount settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration and subsequently merged with Skydance Media. Colbert and Trump have long been critics of one another, despite the president being a guest on the show in 2015. The comedian has rarely missed an opportunity to make fun of Trump, and the president responded with approval of the show’s cancellation. Though Trump denied responsibility for Colbert’s cancellation, he posted on Truth Social, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
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Though the best directing award was “The Late Show’s” first Emmy, Colbert himself has been nominated for 44 Primetime Emmys over the course of his career, taking home 10 for his work on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” He has also won two Grammys, five Peabody awards, seven Producers Guild awards and four Writers Guild awards.
From Variety US