Stephen Colbert & Oprah Winfrey Swap Seats on ‘Late Show’ as She Interviews Him

Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Colbert switched roles on Tuesday’s (April 7) edition of The Late Show as the legendary daytime talk show host interviewed Colbert about his show’s cancellation.

While being interviewed by Colbert, Winfrey took a second to ask the comedian how he was feeling about The Late Show coming to an end next month. “Don’t go Oprah on me now,” Colbert joked before asking Winfrey if she wanted to swap seats.

Winfrey jumped at the chance and took her seat behind the desk, while Colbert moved over to the guest sofa. “So I am wondering, as you stand here at the threshold of what’s about to be done, what do you feel like, in this moment, you will most want to release? To let go?” Winfrey asked.

Colbert said he didn’t want to let go of anything just yet. “I have a white-knuckle grip on these people who I love, who I’ve worked with all these years, including those people over there,” he shared, pointing to the band and behind-the-scenes crew.

“And the audience, obviously,” he added, as he and Winfrey discussed how crucial the live audience is to a talk show.

Colbert noted how the audience is the “third person in the conversation,” stating, “And they are doing their job better than you and I can. They know what their job is, and they’re very committed to their job, which is to listen to what’s going on and having a reaction to it… The audience is very pure in their engagement in our conversation.”

He even admitted to needing an audience when he has to make a call to someone “on a corporate level,” explaining how he will ask his assistant and someone else to “sit at the desk across from me so I have an audience to hear me have the phone call, so that I will say what I actually feel. Because the audience makes me do it more than I will make me do it.”

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Wrapping up the segment, Winfrey told Colbert, “I just want to say to you, thank you so much. Thank you so much for holding the space for laughter.”

CBS previously announced that The Late Show would end in May 2026, following the close of the 2025–26 broadcast season. CBS cited financial reasons for the cancelation, claiming the show loses $40 million annually. At the time, some critics argued the axing was politically motivated, with parent company Paramount hoping to appease President Trump amid its merger with Skydance, which required government approval.

Colbert’s final show will air at 11:35/10:35c on CBS on May 21.