The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is not airing new episodes this week, March 17-21, on CBS, instead showing repeats from recent episodes. As for why the late-night talk show is taking a break, we can sum it up in two words: March Madness.
The annual NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, affectionately known as March Madness, begins this week. While there was no official statement about the tournament prompting The Late Show's hiatus, with games airing on CBS on Thursday and Friday, the network likely opted to give Colbert and his crew the week off instead of doing a partial week.
That being said, reruns of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert are still going to air all week on CBS. Monday through Wednesday the reruns are expected to air at their usual time, 11:35 pm ET/PT, but on Thursday and Friday it is likely that the episodes will air later than normal (TV Guide has the show listed as starting at 12:35 am ET/PT). Here is a look at the schedule for The Late Show reruns this week:
Monday, March 17
- George Clooney
- Alan Ritchson
- Original airdate February 18, 2025
Tuesday, March 18
- John Oliver
- Performance by The War and Treaty
- Original airdate February 17, 2025
Wednesday, March 19
- Drew Barrymore takes “The Colbert Questionert”
- Bong Joon Ho
- Original airdate February 25, 2025
Thursday, March 20
- Jake Tapper
- Performance by Paris Paloma
- Original airdate March 5, 2025
Friday, March 21
- Sterling K. Brown
- Reid Hoffman
- Original airdate March 6, 2025
After Midnight, CBS’s other late-night program that airs immediately after The Late Show, is also going to be taking the week off and showing reruns. The other major broadcast network late-night talk shows, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, are scheduled to air new episodes at their normal times.
If you don’t want to stay up late to watch The Late Show reruns this week but like getting your nightly dose of Colbert, then you can stream the scheduled episodes or other previous episodes of The Late Show on-demand if you have a Paramount Plus subscription. Among the show’s recent highlights was an extended interview with Gary Oldman, where he shared some secrets to his performance of Slow Horses’ character Jackson Lamb.
March Madness games continue on Thursday and Friday next week, but at this time we don’t know if they will impact the CBS schedule where Colbert may be off for a second straight week. We expect that announcement by March 21.
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