Stephen Colbert is live again. CBS announced Monday, May 24, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be returning to the Ed Sullivan Theater with a fully vaccinated audience on Monday, June 14.
“Over the last 437 days, my staff and crew (and family!) have amazed me with their professionalism and creativity as we made shows for an audience we couldn’t see or hear,” said Colbert, per Vanity Fair. “I look forward to once again doing shows for an audience I can smell and touch.” The theatre, which hosts a capacity of over 400, will welcome audience members that show proof of vaccination. Capacity restrictions will not be in place and face masks will be optional. Staff and crew members will be tested prior to coming back to work and monitored regularly for signs of symptoms.
Although this refreshing announcement feels like we’re in the homestretch to pre-pandemic life, it also signals the end of an era for late-night entertainment where hosts found themselves mastering the unorthodox virtual realm and innovating their sets to still amuse a nation faced with a bleak pandemic. Colbert filmed his first remote show on March 16, 2020 from his bathtub and in over a year, the top-rated show has produced 205 episodes sans a live audience because of the unprecedented coronavirus outbreak. Continuing to tape from his home theatre and occasionally alternate to a smaller studio, Colbert is one of the last hosts who’s remained reticent about venturing back into his original setting. Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show) and Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) are no longer remote and have been taping live shows for their socially distanced in-person audience. Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Late Show with James Corden have also incorporated in-studio filming accompanied by a significantly reduced audience while also including both in-person and virtual guests onto the show.
