WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the Season 3 premiere of Elsbeth.
Stephen Colbert is already turning a major career shake-up into dramatic television fodder. In the Season 3 premiere of CBS’s Elsbeth, Colbert plays Scotty Bristol, a narcissistic late-night talk show host who becomes the episode’s murder victim — a role that feels especially meta given real-world developments.
What makes it more striking: Colbert filmed his Elsbeth scenes the very same week that CBS announced it would cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Despite the timing, cast and crew say he stayed “flawless” and fully committed. Carrie Preston, star of Elsbeth, recalled being anxious about working with him so soon after the cancellation news but said Colbert’s presence energized the set.
In the episode, Scotty Bristol is portrayed as a demanding, abrasive boss who alienates his writers. His executive producer Laurel (Amy Sedaris) ultimately murders him using a paper shredder — drawing on shared history between characters and real-life ties between the actors. Conan O’Brien’s frequent sidekick, Andy Richter, appears instead as Scotty’s sidekick Mickey, adding further layers of inside-late-night humor.
One line lands hard given the timing: Scotty announces, “We’re going to miss this show when it’s gone.” Apparently, that was in the original script, written before Colbert’s show cancellation was made public. Elsbeth creator Jonathan Tolins says the script was always planned to be bold, and though real life intersected in uncanny ways, the episode wasn’t rewritten to reflect it.
The guest spot gives Colbert an intriguing new chapter: as he transitions away from nightly hosting, he steps into fiction, satire and dramatic irony all at once. It’s a telling move — leveraging real turmoil in the late-night world into layered, self-referential art.
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