CBS is giving Stephen Colbert another late-night gig—just not in this universe.
Following the network’s controversial cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Colbert has joked about launching a podcasting career when the curtain falls on the show in May 2026.
But it turns out he’s not done playing the role of the late-night host just yet.
Colbert will make a guest appearance on the CBS crime comedy Elsbeth as the host of a fictional late-night talk show, Vulture has reported.
The 61-year-old comedian will appear in one episode of Elsbeth’s third season, which will air in October. Colbert filmed his episode this week and his fictional talk show is called Way Late with Scotty Bristol, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Colbert’s appearance on the murder-of-the-week show starring Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, and Carra Patterson, has been in the works for months—long before CBS pulled the plug on his real-life program.
During Pierce’s appearance on The Late Show in February, Colbert asked the actor if he could pull some strings to get him on Elsbeth.
“Will you talk to somebody over there, because I keep asking CBS, I want to be a corpse on one of these shows. I want to be the body that’s found behind the pile of lettuce boxes or something like that,” Colbert said.
Pierce responded, “I can make that happen. I know a guy who knows a guy. We can get you on.”
It appears Pierce did make it happen for Colbert, but not before CBS canceled the host’s own show, in what it called a “financial decision.”
But the cancellation came as CBS’ parent company Paramount was seeking federal approval from the FCC for its merger with Skydance Media, and after it agreed to pay $16 million to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the network.
Many observers, including Colbert’s predecessor David Letterman, have questioned whether Colbert’s public rebukes of the president and his criticism of Paramount’s settlement was a factor in the decision to end the show.
The merger was approved by the FCC a few days after Colbert’s show was cancelled. Meanwhile, Colbert has joked that CBS made the mistake of leaving him “alive” and has doubled down on his attacks on Trump and Paramount on the show, declaring, “the gloves are off.”
Elsbeth airs at 10 p.m. EST. The Daily Beast has reached out to Colbert’s team at The Late Show and the Elsbeth team for confirmation on Colbert’s move.
