Why Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ won’t air this week

Jennifer Garner, Baz Luhrmann and Patrick Stewart were among the guests scheduled to appear on Colbert’s show this week

Stephen Colbert has cancelled this week’s edition of The Late Show as he recovers from surgery.

The 59-year-old talk show host announced on social media that he had suffered a ruptured appendix.

“Sorry to say that I have to cancel our shows this week,” Colbert wrote on Monday (27 November) on Threads. “I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Turkey overdose, Steve? Gravy boat capsize?’ Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix.”

He added that he was “grateful to my doctors for their care and to Evie and the kids for putting up with me” and joked that all his emails would “be handled by my pancreas”.

Colbert’s longrunning CBS talk show had three shows planned for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday featuring guests Jennifer Garner, Baz Luhrmann, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer and his former bandleader Jon Batiste as well as Barbra Streisand who was set to take “The Colbert Questionert.”

The news comes just a month after Colbert was forced to cancel a week’s worth of shows after he contracted Covid-19.

Repeats will air in place of live shows during Colbert’s absence, a CBS spokesperson said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times.

Colbert has hosted The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS since 2015.

Before taking a break for Thanksgiving last week, Colbert mocked Fox News for celebrating the festive season by blaming US President Joe Biden for the apparent rise in the cost of turkeys.

Former congressman Jason Chaffetz had appeared on Fox News to claim that rising inflation in the US under Biden had driven up the price of turkeys and postage stamps.

“That’s right. Thanks to Joe Biden’s greed, it’s even more expensive than ever to buy a raw turkey, cover it in stamps and send it to a relative,” Colbert joked on his show. “Thanks a lot, Joe.”

Late night talk shows returned to the airwaves in the US last month after the Writers Guild of America struck a deal with Hollywood studios following months of strike action.

Former president Donald Trump bemoaned the shows’ revivals as he is often a target of the hosts’ political monologues.

He wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “Now that the ‘strike’ is over, the talentless, low rated CREEPS of Late Night Television are back. I knew there was a reason I didn’t want to see it settled - True LOSERS!!!”