Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert confirmed he has talked about running for office with his family and faith leader.
Colbert, a Catholic father of three children, teased his future on Late Night with Seth Meyers Tuesday. This appearance by Colbert comes as his program, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is slated to end in May. As a result, there is speculation about what is next for Colbert, as host Seth Meyers asked questions about Colbert’s rumored ambitions.
“These are Colbert rumors — you can put ’em to bed or not — of what people think you might do next,” Meyers said.
“I’m neither going to confirm nor deny any of these, or many of these, ‘cause I gotta keep my options open,” Colbert said.
The pair briefly discussed reporting that Colbert had signed a $13.5 million deal with Netflix, which Colbert joked was “not enough money.” Colbert’s show costs $100 million to produce annually since Colbert took over in 2015.
“That you might run for office, maybe even president,” Meyers said.
“I’ve heard that one,” Colbert said as the in-studio audience burst into applause.
“Obviously, I mean, that’s something I have discussed with my faith leader and my family. And if there is some way for me to serve the American people in some way that could possibly be greater than a late-night television show, I would consider that,” Colbert said. “I get it, how about that? I get it.”
“But FYI, they pay less than 13.5,” Meyers said.
Members of Congress receive an annual salary capped at $174,000. The president’s salary is capped at $400,000 per year.
“Not anymore,” Colbert joked before teasing a “Colbert Coin” as a joke. This was a reference to the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. The first family controls roughly 22.5 billion of the $WLFI tokens.
CBS explained that canceling the Late Show with Stephen Colbert was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
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“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount,” CBS said, referring to its merger with Skydance and recent $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.
Colbert’s show attracted an average of 1.9 million total viewers. In the week since the show was confirmed to end, viewership bumped up to 2.4 million according to Nielsen ratings.