Ahead of the conclusion of his term as the host for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the veteran talk show host recalled one of the most difficult instances he had to endure at the very start of his career. Stephen Colbert shared an important moment during a Q&A session. He believed he would end up having “the shortest late-night career” after some technical difficulties on his first episode. He fondly recalled this event.
Stephen Colbert talks about ‘one of the most terrifying moments’
Stephen Colbert spoke about an important event before the conclusion of his show on May 21. He looked back on a “terrifying” night early in his career. In his opinion, it made him wonder if he was about to have the shortest late-night career ever. Colbert revisited this moment during an audience Q&A shared on his YouTube channel on Monday, May 4, 2026.
Colbert said that things were “a little rough” when he took over the acclaimed show from David Letterman. He explained that the format was “much more complicated” than Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. He and his team “didn’t realize how much more complicated it would be.”
“Back then, I liked to see the edit finished. I’m up in the editing suites … and the show will not export, meaning it won’t come out of the Avid editing machine. And every time we try to export it, it crashes at exactly the same point, 1:30-ish into the monologue,” the host recalled. “And then it won’t go to the broadcast center to be sent to the world. This goes on, and on, and on. And we go on at 11:35. It’s our first show, it’s 11:15, and I’m thinking, ‘S***, somebody should tell the network.’ I thought, ‘Oh, I’m the executive in charge of production.”
It was almost time, and everyone, including Colbert’s family, was. eagerly waiting for the show to come on. Then, Colbert’s editor, Jason Baker, came up with the idea of exporting the show “straight to the broadcast center” from his computer and avoiding any “intermediary channels.” This idea finally worked out.
“That is one of the fondest memories that I have and one of the most terrifying moments,” Colbert added, “Can you imagine? I remember, leading up to that second, that very second, I thought, ‘I might have the shortest late-night career.’ I don’t see them giving us a second show if that happened on the first show.”
Colbert hosted the show for 11 seasons before announcing that CBS had canceled his late-night talk show.
Originally reported by Sourav Chakraborty on Mandatory.
