Why is The Late Show with Stephen Colbert not new this week, April 22-26?

Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Image credit: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)

Stephen Colbert must be heading to bed early this week, as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is not airing any new episodes from Monday, April 22, through Friday, April 26, on CBS. However, if The Late Show is part of your nightly ritual, it is still going to be on at its usual time of 11:35 pm ET/PT, all episodes this week will just be reruns of recent episodes.

So why is The Late Show with Stephen Colbert taking the week off? Well it's not another sporting event pushing the talk show out of its usual spot like recent instances with March Madness and The Masters. And it's not another medical issue like Colbert had in fall 2023, thankfully. Instead, it just seems that all of late night is tapping out for this week for some time off.

In addition to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live! are also airing reruns all week, as is NBC's other late night program, Late Night with Seth Meyers. However, one late night show is still airing new episodes for at least a part of this week, as CBS's After Midnight has shared details for new episodes airing Monday, April 22, through Wednesday, April 24, with guests that include Community alum Gillian Jacobs, Drew Carey, Weird Al Yankovic and Abbott Elementary's Lisa Ann Walter.

As for The Late Show, four of the five reruns airing this week are from episodes that aired in April, while the other is from late March. Here is a look at the complete schedule for this week:

Monday, April 22

  • Christiane Amanpour
  • Wilmer Valderrama
  • Special appearance by Tony Hawk
  • Original airdate April 10, 2024

Tuesday, April 23

  • Matt Damon takes "The Colbert Questionert"
  • Hannah Waddingham
  • Original airdate April 1, 2024

Wednesday, April 24

  • Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • Performance by Tyla
  • Original airdate April 8, 2024

Thursday, April 25

  • Carol Burnett
  • Performance by Waxahatchee featuring MJ Lenderman
  • Original airdate March 26

Friday, April 26

  • Steve Buscemi
  • Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
  • Original airdate April 4, 2024

If you are interested in catching up with those or any other past episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert but don't want to stay up until 11:35 pm to do so, you can stream episodes of the talk show on-demand via Paramount Plus (subscription required).

At this point it has not been confirmed when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going to return with new episodes, but CBS usually releases details about the next week's slate of shows on Thursday or Friday, so we'll keep an eye out for that later this week.

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Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.