Colbert Addresses Trump Disrupting ’Survivor’ & ‘Stupid Ballroom’ Project

Alyssa Norwin December 18, 2025, 8:03 am

What To Know

Donald Trump’s primetime address to the nation interrupted the season finale of Survivor on December 17.
Hours later on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert joked that listening to Trump talk was like the final challenge for the Survivor contestants.
Colbert also addressed Trump’s new White House ballroom and how the price for it has increasingly gone up.

Stephen Colbert taped the Wednesday, December 16, episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert before Donald Trump addressed the nation that night, but he still referenced the speech in his monologue.

“We talked about doing the show live tonight to cover the speech, but we decided not to because, and just to give you a little peek behind the showbiz curtain … we would’ve had to have watched it. And I don’t want to do that no more,” Colbert began.”

He then read Trump’s Truth Social post from December 15, where he announced that he’d be giving an impromptu speech the next night. “Kind of a mixed signal to announce an emergency national address because everything’s going great,” the late-night host pointed out.

Colbert also noted that it’s “a really big deal for networks to just hand over their primetime slots on such short notice.” He referenced CBS, in particular, explaining that the three-hour season finale of Survivor Season 49 was interrupted because of Trump.

“Unless that’s the final challenge,” he continued, joking, “You’ve endured starvation, extreme heat, and poisonous snakes, but for your final challenge, you must listen to a bitter old man talk about a ballroom.”

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Elsewhere in the monologue, Colbert brought up Trump’s “stupid ballroom” that he’s been constructing in the White House’s East Wing. He showed clips of the president publicly talking about the ballroom over the last few months to point out that the price has increasingly gone up over time. Back in July, Trump said it was costing $200 million, but by September, it was $250 million, then $300 million in October, and $400 million in December.

“At least all that money is going towards something important: thick windows,” he joked, cutting to a speech where Trump said the windows are “impenetrable by anything but a howitzer.” Colbert added, “Don’t tell them that, you dummy! Don’t tell them what to do!”

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, CBS