Late-night hosts have long pursued guests who seem unattainable, figures whose presence alone could transform a show. As The Late Show nears its end, Stephen Colbert shared his own take on that chase in a recent interview. The beloved host revealed that Pope Leo sits at the very top of his personal guest wish list, calling him his ultimate “white whale.”
Stephen Colbert reveals the guest he wants to interview on The Late Show
Stephen Colbert has shared the name at the top of his Late Show guest wishlist, the interview he wants most before the curtain falls.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the comedian reflected on the upcoming end of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Colbert shared that he hopes Pope Leo XIV will join him on air before the show ends its run on CBS on May 21.
“The pope is my white whale,” Colbert, an outspoken Catholic, shared in the interview. “I wrote him. I said, ‘Come on!’ No, I said, ‘Your Holiness, I hope this letter finds you well or, at the very least, infallible. Would you please come on my show? We don’t have to talk about politics,'” he added.
Stephen Colbert noted that keeping politics off the table might entice the Chicago-born pope to visit The Late Show.
“I didn’t really think he’d want to talk about politics or anything like that,” he continued. “Little did I know that the guy could throw a punch [as he recently proved, feuding with Trump over the Iran war]. I said, ‘Let’s talk about being an American Catholic,'” Colbert shared.
President Donald Trump also attacked the pope on Truth Social. In the post, he labeled the pontiff weak on crime and disastrous for foreign policy.
Stephen Colbert also joked he would feel personally betrayed if Pope Leo appeared on a rival late-night show instead. He quipped that he might even reconsider his Catholic faith for Presbyterianism if the pope chose Jimmy Kimmel.
Originally reported by Sibanee Gogoi for Mandatory.
