Stephen Colbert Ended Comedy Central Show Because He Feared Character Might Hurt Someone

Stephen Colbert opens up about the behind-the-scenes stress of staying in character on 'The Colbert Report.'

November 3, 2016

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When Stephen Colbert resurrected his beloved Colbert Report character for some Late Show political action earlier this year, fans wondered if the former Comedy Central personality was planning to bring back truthiness full-time. Given Colbert's fresh comments on the difficulties of maintaining such a character, we probably shouldn't expect too much more of that in the future. In a new interview with NPR, Colbert spoke candidly about why he decided to (mostly) call it quits on straight-up satire and start finding a new voice.

"I just couldn't take playing that character anymore," Colbert said Wednesday. "I began to feel like I was stumbling downhill with an armful of bottles and that I couldn't actually keep up the discipline, because it took discipline to remind myself every day to be the character, don't be yourself." That discipline, Colbert said, eventually became a source of serious stress.

"It wasn't because I didn't like it anymore— I still liked it —but I just thought, I'm not sure if I can actually keep this up without hurting someone," Colbert said. "I thought maybe I would make some big mistake with the character because he would say terrible things. And I got away with some of the terrible things he would say or do because it was all filtered through his mask, but if I didn't maintain the mask, it would just be me being terrible."

Though Colbert's Late Show is consistently bested in ratings by Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, Colbert has managed to fold in some of his Comedy Central vibes while appealing to a wider (i.e. older) audience without having to do embarrassing shit like t ousle Clownstick's hair. To give Colbert a little wiggle room in the NSFW department, Showtime is partnering with his CBS team for a live election special that promises plenty of nudity and profanity.