Colbert mocks Paramount while accepting award for confronting injustice

Brendan Morrow, USA TODAYMon, March 9, 2026 at 1:07 PM UTC

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NEW YORK — As the end of "The Late Show" nears, Stephen Colbert is giving his writers an emotional send-off.

The comedian honored his late-night writing staff and took a shot at his bosses at Paramount during a speech at the Writers Guild of America Awards' New York ceremony on Sunday, March 8, where he received the Walter Bernstein Award.

The guild describes the honorary award, named after the screenwriter who was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s for his communist beliefs, as recognizing individuals who have "demonstrated with creativity, grace and bravery a willingness to confront social injustice in the face of adversity."

In his speech, Colbert pointed out that the Hollywood blacklist "was not a government policy," but was a "voluntary, industry-wide agreement to deny work to left-leaning artists out of fear that certain members of the government might publicly attack the parent corporation of these artists or the union they belong to."

But Colbert added he does "not deserve the implied parallel" between himself and Bernstein.

"This is not the 1950s, this is not the red scare, and as far as I can tell, no one in late night is fomenting a revolution," he said. "As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised, but then Paramount bought it. Evidently, the revolution was losing like $40 million a year. It had to go. I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack."

Stephen Colbert speaks during the Writers Guild Awards New York ceremony on March 8, 2026, in New York City.

The remarks came almost eight months after CBS, which is owned by Paramount Skydance, controversially canceled Colbert's "Late Show" last year. Critics alleged Paramount was motivated by politics and a desire to appease President Donald Trump to help facilitate a merger with Skydance that required government approval. The company maintained the move was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," unrelated to the content of Colbert's show. The final episode of "The Late Show" will air in May.

Colbert went on to highlight all of his writers by name and share amusing fun facts about each of them, urging those in the room to "employ these lovely folks" after May. He closed by saying he has "loved our time together, which wasn't as much time as I would like," and became emotional while noting that it's "going to be hard" to say goodbye to his writing staff.

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The award was presented by Robert Smigel, who helped give Colbert his start by hiring him for the short-lived sketch show "The Dana Carvey Show" in 1996. While introducing Colbert, Smigel said there "clearly are tangible consequences to speaking truth to power," but he praised the comedian for leading with "integrity."

"Stephen, I know you love your staff, and I know how badly you feel for them," he said. "I hope you also know that they wouldn't want you to be anything less than the decent and brave soul that you are."

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Comedian Roy Wood Jr. was the host for the Writers Guild of America Awards' New York ceremony, one of the final awards shows prior to Sunday's Oscars. The big movie winners were this year's Academy Awards frontrunners: "One Battle After Another" was awarded best adapted screenplay, while "Sinners" won best original screenplay, leaving both films well-positioned to win the equivalent Academy Awards.

On the TV side, "The Pitt" and "The Studio" won best drama and comedy series, respectively. "The Pitt" was also recognized as the best new television series.

Roy Wood Jr. jokes about BAFTAs racial slur incident, mocks 'Melania' documentary at WGAs

Wood kicked the night off with a fiery monologue riffing on a number of recent news items, including the incident at the British Academy Film Awards last month where Tourette's advocate John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur while two Black presenters, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, were on stage.

Roy Wood Jr. speaks during the Writers Guild Awards New York Ceremony on March 8, 2026, in New York City.

"There are no microphones at your tables," Wood told attendees. "This is not the BAFTAs. We cannot afford microphones. So because there are no microphones at the tables, Tourette's or not, if you plan on yelling a slur at the stage tonight, please stand up and project."

Wood also took a jab at "Melania," the controversial Amazon documentary about first lady Melania Trump. He described the film as a "$40 million political documentary about a woman who kind of, sort of, hates her husband" and joked, "Melania's the only first lady I've seen that already dresses like a widow."

"Melania" came up again later in the evening when "The Daily Show" host Desi Lydic joked, while presenting a documentary award, "There's nothing quite like a good documentary, which you'd know if you watched 'Melania,' because you were probably thinking, 'Wow, I wish I was watching a good documentary.'"

Roy Wood Jr., Jordan Klepper address the future of late-night after Colbert cancellation

Ahead of Colbert's honor, Wood chatted with USA TODAY on the red carpet about the future of late-night, arguing the format won't be going anywhere, but may be forced to evolve.

"I'm very nervous about what the future of late-night will be, but there will always be some sort of apparatus in place for Americans to be entertained," Wood said. "I think there will still be something there. I don't think it's going to be some big, thousand-seat theater. I don't think that it's going to be glitzy and glamorous. But it'll be something."

Stephen Colbert, left, and Robert Smigel speak during the Writers Guild Awards New York ceremony on March 8, 2026, in New York City.

Smigel similarly told USA TODAY that there's still "a place" for late-night shows because they're "part of America's routine," though "like everything in broadcast television, they may have to cut their budgets." "The Daily Show" host Jordan Klepper agreed that late-night will continue on, at least in some form.

"Late-night as a format and as a construct is a way that we can gather around the television, the screens, the hologram that gets beamed to us three months from now, who knows what. But it's people speaking about what is happening today," he said. "I think that need is going to outlast the formats, or at least evolve with those formats."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen Colbert slams Paramount at Writers Guild Awards

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