{"id":271883,"date":"2025-11-04T23:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271883\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:44:07","slug":"im-more-conservative-than-people-think-colbert-pushes-back-against-lefty-perception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/271883\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’m more conservative than people think”: Colbert pushes back against “lefty” perception"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Colbert<\/a> doesn\u2019t see himself as a paragon of progressivism.<\/p>\n

In an interview with GQ<\/a> covering his two decades as a television host and his sudden cancellation by CBS<\/a>, Colbert said his \u201chonest\u201d reaction to the news of the day under President Donald Trump<\/a> left people with an incorrect perception.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople perceive me as this sort of lefty figure; I think I\u2019m more conservative than people think. I just happen to be talking about a government in extremis,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m giving you is my reaction video to the day. And my reaction video is like The Scream, in a way, but with jokes \u2026 It\u2019s hard to have a balanced reaction to the idea of troops on streets of a city that actually is not undergoing an invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s long-running talk show was cancelled<\/a> just days after he joked about his network\u2019s parent company settling a lawsuit<\/a> with the president. Colbert declined to weigh in on whether the two were related<\/a>, saying only that it was \u201creasonable\u201d for outsiders to reach that sort of conclusion<\/a>. He noted that his show was still the top-rated show in late-night at the time of his cancellation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best reason to be number one is that the network does not f**k with you. That is the best reason to be number one. And we enjoyed nine unf**ked years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Colbert said he had no understanding of the world of network executives, saying that his show had a high overhead that cost-conscious higher-ups might not be able to move past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese late-night shows are kind of like symphony orchestras. They need a certain amount of personnel to do them. You can\u2019t really do a show in the Ed Sullivan Theater \u2026 for the cost of a podcast,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems indispensable as part of some Americans\u2019 experience or daily experience. But I can understand from a business point of view, they go, \u2018Well, that is meaningless to me as someone who has to answer to a board of directors and investors.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s last show is set for May. He told the magazine that he has no idea \u201chow we\u2019re going to land this plane\u201d and hasn\u2019t been able to assess his feelings about the end of the show \u201cbecause the shows go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image I have is a man walking toward me in the dusk and he\u2019s got something in his hand, and I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a knife or an ice cream cone, but he\u2019s asking me if I\u2019d like a lick,\u201d he said of the impending end.<\/p>\n

Colbert did say he was ready to \u201cget a little oxygen back into my brain\u201d and that he felt a \u201csense of relief that [he] might not have to put the snorkel on and get into the sewer every day.\u201d Still, he said that the end of his show will leave a void.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will miss every aspect of my job other than wearing makeup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

about this topic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert doesn\u2019t see himself as a paragon of progressivism. In an interview with GQ covering his two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-271883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}