Conan O’Brien Says Late-Night Might Die, But Stephen Colbert Won’t “Go Away”: “Not Gonna Happen”

Although The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is coming to an unceremonious end, Conan O’Brien is confident its host isn’t going anywhere.

While speaking Saturday at his induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, the 5x Emmy-winning comedian praised Colbert as “too talented and too essential” and shared his thoughts on the future of late-night television.

“Yes, late-night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear. But those voices are not going anywhere,” said O’Brien. “People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not gonna happen.”

Meanwhile, Paramount is under fire for canceling The Late Show on the heels of the company’s $16M settlement with Trump, which has been scrutinized as potential bribery by some lawmakers. Following Colbert’s ongoing jokes at the president’s expense, Trump has celebrated the talk show’s demise.

George Cheeks, CBS‘s Chair of TV Media, has since claimed that the talk show’s “economics made it a challenge for us to keep going.” Jeff Shell, president of Paramount under its new Skydance acquisition, has shown his support for the decision, explaining, “Late-night has a huge problem right now. … You can’t make it work economically anymore.”

Going scorched-earth on CBS ahead of his May 2026 departure, Colbert recently kicked off the job search while signing off for summer hiatus from The Late Show. “Netflix, call me I’m available in June,” he said last weekend on the show. “I will also entertain offers from Amazon.”