While his show is set to be axed from CBS, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is up for a prestigious Emmy Award at this year’s event.
He is nominated for an Emmy award in the Outstanding talk series category alongside his The Daily Show, which airs on Comedy Central and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!. It comes as CBS announced that The Late Show has been axed, with the final season concluding in May 2026.
The network stated the cancellation was “purely a financial decision” due to a “challenging backdrop in late night,” not because of the show’s performance or content. This decision has faced significant public and celebrity backlash, with some suggesting ulterior motives related to Colbert’s on-air criticisms of Paramount and its previous settlement with Donald Trump.
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“I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,” Trump admitted in a Truth Social post shared at the time of the news. “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
Stacy Jones, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based pop culture agency Hollywood Branded, has told the Irish Star US what a win could do for Colbert.
When asked how Colbert’s win could be perceived by CBS following the cancellation, Stacy pointed out, “An Emmy is cultural validation. It gives the show a brand-safe halo, lifts clip consumption, and strengthens a final-season sell with advertisers. It won’t magically fix the macro economics of late-night at a legacy network, but it does make the optics of a sunset call look harsher because you’re ending an award-winning, still-relevant property.”
Emmy Award winners are decided by members of the Television Academy (National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences), who vote in a two-stage process.
In the nomination round, all members can vote for program categories, while peer-group members vote for categories within their specific fields. After the nominees are announced, a final round of voting occurs, where all members vote on the nominated programs and performances to determine the winners. Independent accountants tally the ballots and ensure a fair and accurate process.
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If the 61-year-old veteran host does win, Stacy advised him to “keep it gracious and strategic” by “thanking the team, viewers, affiliates, and advertisers.
“A single clean line acknowledging change is fine, then pivot back to celebrating the work. Save any pointed commentary for his own monologue the next night, where he controls tone, context, and pacing. Brands reward composure and wit,” she added.
Stacy also weighed in on how Trump would handle Colbert’s possible victory. “If Stephen wins, expect a ‘Hollywood elites rigged it’ post and a ratings jab. If he loses, expect a victory-lap taunt. Either way, it’s attention-economy theater designed to shift the spotlight,” the PR expert predicted.
She went on to warn against Colbert “feeding the outrage loop on stage Rise above in the room,” and instead, “Reframe later with satire on The Late Show, with punchlines over punches, and keep the focus on creativity, crew jobs, and the audience. That’s the tone advertisers prefer to sit next to.”
The 77th Emmy Awards are scheduled to air on September 14, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, California, with CBS and Paramount+ airing the ceremony.
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