Late night was back in full force on Monday night, and the hosts of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” were all expected to have something to say about it in their opening monologues.
“It feels good to be back,” Colbert said at the start of his Oct. 2 monologue — his first since May 1, the last evening before the WGA strike commenced the following day. “It feels good to be with all of you again here in the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Because after the first few months of the strike, [Colbert’s wife] Evie refused to keep chanting my name. But now the writers’ strike is over, with a new contract that includes protections from A.I., cost of living increases, better pay for streaming. Plus, thanks to the picket lines, my writers got fresh air and sunshine — and they do not care for that. Not they’re back safely in their joke holes, doing what they do best: Making my prompter word screen full of good and ha-ha!
“It’s been a long time since our last ‘Late Show.’ We looked at the calendar today, and check my math on this, I believe we have been off the air for 154 indictments,” he additionally quipped. “It was a crazy summer to be off. Packed with events. Obviously it would be stupid to recap everything that happened over the last five months. So here we go.”
TONIGHT: @StephenAtHome is back with a brand new LATE SHOW. What'd we miss?#Colbert pic.twitter/CTnvwU40hk
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) October 3, 2023
And here is how Colbert opened Monday’s show:
After 148 days on the open sea, our captain returns to shore just in time to host The Late Show.
