A night after The Late Show won the 2026 Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series, Stephen Colbert made his first return to late-night television since signing off last May, appearing as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
During the three-segment interview, Colbert confirmed he doesn’t currently miss his former gig, exclaiming, “I will say, I have an opportunity to not think about the news every day, and I took it!” He also discussed some of his post-Late Show endeavors, including temporarily relocating to New Zealand while working on his Lord of the Rings movie and that being too intimidated by an NDA to reveal any details about the project even to Steven Spielberg. Colbert also shared a story about being pulled over by a friendly police officer in New Zealand.
The segment also featured Colbert shaving his beard, fulfilling a promise he made to his wife, Evie, that he would remove it if he won an Emmy.
The appearance concluded with Kimmel revealing that Colbert had gifted him the Captain America shield that he originally received from Marvel while hosting The Colbert Report. “That hung on my set for the next 20 years,” Colbert explained. “So when we were taking apart the set, I knew exactly where I wanted to send the shield.”
With Colbert’s blessing, Kimmel installed the shield permanently on his own set, noting, “I want to be able to see it when I’m doing the monologue every night. And so I’m going to put it right there for all time, or at least however much time we have left!”
