Stephen Colbert appeared on a Monroe County public access television station Friday night, the night after his last broadcast of “The Late Show” on CBS.
“It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV,” Colbert said from the studio. “So I am grateful to be able to be here on Monroe Community Media before they also get acquired by Paramount.”
Colbert hosted “The Late Show” since 2015. CBS announced it would cancel the show in July. Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, said it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” but many critics, including other late night TV hosts, say the company was bending to political pressure from President Donald Trump.
Colbert served as the guest host of Only in Monroe, a show that airs multiple times per day on Monroe Community Media public access television. He previously hosted the show in 2015.
In addition to wry jabs at Paramount and CBS, Colbert promoted recent coverage of Monroe Community Media, including a segment about a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a local dance studio and one showing a man processing a deer.
The hour-long broadcast included appearances by Jack White, who played the episode’s deadpan DJ, Steve Buscemi, who performed a “public service announcement” for Buscemi’s Pizza, Jeff Daniels, who makes Colbert his famous sandwich, Eminem, the “fire marshal” who approves the cast’s decision to ignite the remnants of the studio set, which they destroyed (with permission) at the end of the episode.
“Since they are no longer using this set, it would actually be helpful for me to destroy it,” Colbert said. “Which is pretty great news, because right now, for no particular reason, I would very much like to break something.”
The episode also included appearances by the regular hosts of the show, Michelle Baumann and Kaye Lani Rafko-Wilson. Together with Colbert and White, they cheers with shots of River Raisin Distillery spirits “to Michigan and all of its lakes and tributaries.” Later, they imbibe in shots of helium while discussing Baumann’s experience with cancer. She is in remission, she said on the show.
ckthompson@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Stephen Colbert makes surprise TV appearance on local Michigan show
Reporting by Carol Thompson, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
