According to Naughty but Nice, a Substack newsletter run by entertainment journalist Rob Shuter, Stephen Colbert has reportedly been struggling since the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired on May 21.
“This wasn’t just a job — it was his identity,” one source told Shuter. “Stephen poured everything into that show. Losing it has hit him hard.”
Colbert has apparently kept a low profile in recent weeks. Shuter also claimed that the former late-night host looked noticeably unhappy while attending the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding over the weekend.
“He’s always been the one holding everyone else together,” another source said. “Now he’s the one who needs time. He’s stepped away to figure out what comes next.”
CBS announced in July 2025 that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would end after its final season. The network cited serious financial losses as part of the decision, bringing Colbert’s decade-long run to a close. He had hosted the program since 2015.
After the announcement, Colbert spent the next several months doing much of what had defined his show for years: attacking President Donald Trump. Even some liberal viewers appeared to grow tired of the extended farewell tour and its repeated focus on the president.
Trump, meanwhile, seemed more than happy to watch Colbert’s show come to an end.
Conservative audiences had already written Colbert off long before CBS canceled the program. To many viewers on the right, he had stopped being a comedian and had become little more than a spokesman for the liberal political establishment.
One of the clearest examples came during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a widely mocked segment known as “The Vax-Scene,” Colbert performed alongside dancers dressed as syringes while promoting the COVID-19 vaccine. The skit was meant to be humorous and encouraging, but many viewers found it awkward, forced and deeply embarrassing.
For conservatives who had watched Colbert’s transformation over the years, the segment seemed to confirm what they already believed. In their view, he had traded genuine comedy for political approval and establishment praise.
That is why reports of Colbert’s unhappiness after the show’s cancellation have attracted so much attention. His disappointment may be real, but it is also difficult to separate from the choices he made during his time on television.
The situation brings to mind a scene from C.S. Lewis’ 1945 novel The Great Divorce. In the book, Lewis imagines a bus ride from Hell to Heaven. One passenger describes Napoleon Bonaparte endlessly pacing back and forth in the afterlife, blaming everyone else for his failures.
“It was Soult’s fault. It was Ney’s fault. It was Josephine’s fault. It was the fault of the Russians. It was the fault of the English,” Napoleon mutters without stopping.
The point of the scene is not simply that Napoleon is miserable. It is that he remains trapped because he cannot accept responsibility for his own choices.
Colbert now faces a similar question. He can blame CBS, changing television habits, declining ratings, political enemies or even Trump. But none of those explanations will help him move forward if he refuses to examine his own role in what happened.
