Megyn Kelly is not holding back when it comes to Stephen Colbert’s farewell surrounding his departure from late-night television. During the May 15 episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, the host sharply criticized Colbert’s handling of the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, calling the ongoing reaction “humiliating” and accusing the comedian of dragging out the drama surrounding the show’s cancellation.
Megyn Kelly calls Stephen Colbert’s exit drama more than ’embarrassing’
Her comments came just one day after Stephen Colbert reunited on-air with former Late Show with David Letterman host David Letterman for a chaotic comedy segment that quickly went viral online. During the May 14 episode of The Late Show, Letterman joined Colbert outside the Ed Sullivan Theater for an over-the-top skit. The pair tossed chairs, smashed watermelons, and even hurled a cake decorated with the words “The Late Show 1993 to 2026” from the theater rooftop onto a massive CBS logo below.
The stunt drew laughs from some viewers online, but Kelly clearly wasn’t among them. “Stephen Colbert’s bizarre goodbye to late-night is finally almost over. Praise Jesus, my God,” Kelly said during her podcast. She argued that the host had turned his cancellation into a drawn-out public meltdown rather than handling the situation privately.
Kelly’s criticism became even sharper as she compared Colbert’s reaction to how she handled her own controversial departure from NBC in 2018. “He and Letterman got together to express how very angry they are about poor Stephen Colbert’s show getting canceled,” she said. “Cry me a river. Would you take it like a man?” The former Fox News anchor then mocked what she viewed as Colbert’s emotional response to the show ending. “This is so humiliating,” Kelly continued. “We know you got canceled. Be a man. This is pathetic.”
Kelly said the public humiliation she faced at the time was intense, but insisted she handled it differently. “When I got canned from NBC, everyone was calling me a racist,” she recalled. “Yes, I got a little teary the day after, because it was overwhelming.” According to Kelly, she never publicly dwelt on the situation or sought ongoing sympathy from audiences. “I didn’t blubber on and on,” she said. “I didn’t ask everybody to feel sorry for me. Take it like a man. Stop it. Stop this. This is so embarrassing.”
