• Stephen Colbert admitted Michelle Williams left him so flustered he “didn’t know what to do with his eyeballs” during her 2016 Late Show appearance
• Colbert made the confession on a special Strike Force Five reunion podcast with Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver
• David Letterman — who handed the Late Show desk to Colbert in 2015 — returns tonight, May 14, with The Strokes performing
• The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its final episode on May 21, ending a 33-year run of the franchise on CBS

Stephen Colbert is spending his final weeks on the Late Show the way he’s spent the last 11 years — being disarmingly honest, surprisingly funny, and occasionally a little unhinged in the best possible way. And this week, that combination produced one of the most genuinely charming confessions of his entire run.

During a special reunion episode of the Strike Force Five podcast — the group he formed with Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver — Colbert was asked if he’d ever interviewed a guest so attractive it became genuinely distracting. He didn’t hesitate.

“I’ll tell you who I did not expect to be wildly attracted to,” he told his fellow hosts. “I didn’t know what to do with myself. I like this person’s work, but I never thought of them as like a bombshell. I did not know what to do with my eyeballs when Michelle Williams was on for the first time.”

Williams first appeared on the Late Show in 2016, promoting the Broadway show Blackbird. And apparently, from the moment she sat down across from him, Colbert was a mess.

“She sat down across from me and I went, ‘F**k, what is wrong with my head? I’d better not look directly at her for this entire interview,'” he recalled. “There was something about her vibe, her face, everything. She’s so beautiful.”

Williams has returned to the Late Show several times since — most recently in April 2025 to promote Dying for Sex, the Hulu limited series for which she won a Golden Globe. She also appeared in 2019 for Fosse/Verdon. Colbert, for his part, reportedly recited poetry in her honor during that last visit, which tracks perfectly for a man who was apparently barely keeping it together in her presence from the start.

He’s Had Other ‘Problems’ Too

Williams wasn’t the only one to leave Colbert tongue-tied. He confessed to a full-blown “Rachel Weisz problem” — one that predates the Late Show entirely.

“When Rachel Weisz would be on The Daily Show, I would leave the building for fear that I would say something stupid,” he said. “I was afraid I would go” — switching to a comically high-pitched voice — “‘Hi! You were great in The Constant Gardener.'”

He also named Rebecca Ferguson and Andrew Garfield as guests who left him awestruck. The Garfield mention prompted Kimmel to remind him, on air, that he’d actually kissed the Spider-Man star during a January 2017 episode of the Late Show.

“Or he kissed me,” Colbert clarified, with zero regret. “We did get our hands tangled in each other’s hair. It was really nice.”

For the record, Colbert — who married his wife Evelyn in 1993 after meeting her in a cinema line in 1990 — has always been clear about where his heart sits. “There is absolutely, bar none, no one who comes close” to Evelyn, he said back in 2019. “The most harrowing idea would be that I would spend any part of my life without her because that would be a level of loneliness and irreplaceable, irredeemable emotional desolation that I could not possibly contemplate.” The man contains multitudes, and apparently also a functional sense of humor about all of them.

Tonight: Letterman Comes Home

While Colbert is busy making confessions, there’s also a big booking to catch tonight. David Letterman — the man who held the Late Show desk for over two decades before passing it to Colbert in 2015 — returns to the show tonight, Wednesday, May 14, at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS. The Strokes are performing.

It’s a full-circle moment in a week already stacked with them. Barack Obama appeared on Wednesday for his second Late Show visit this month alone, and CBS has confirmed the guest lineup for the final week — which includes Tom Hanks and Hamilton star Christopher Jackson — is still being rolled out ahead of the May 21 finale.

Tonight’s episode will stream on Paramount+ after it airs, and clips are expected online shortly after broadcast.

What Colbert Says He’ll Miss Most

The Strike Force Five reunion wasn’t just laughs and celebrity crushes. Colbert got genuinely reflective about what the end of the show means to him — and his answer was quieter than you might expect.

“I think one of the things I’m going to miss most is young people who are good at their jobs,” he said. “And who you met, and they were first out of college or something like that. Like, I was talking to one of my producers the other day. He’s worked for me for 21 years, and he started working for me when he was 21.”

CBS canceled the Late Show last year, citing low ratings after 11 seasons with Colbert. The network has since announced that Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen will fill the 11:35 p.m. slot after the finale. Many observers pointed to the political climate around CBS parent company Paramount Global — now under the ownership of David Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump — as a contributing factor, though CBS has not confirmed that framing.

Colbert himself addressed the abruptness of it all when the cancellation was announced: “I have had a great relationship with CBS. It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this.”

The full Strike Force Five conversation is streaming on YouTube now, and it’s exactly the kind of warm, messy, honest sendoff Colbert deserves.

One week left. Letterman tonight. And somewhere out there, Michelle Williams probably has a very good story to tell about a host who was conspicuously avoiding eye contact.

The post Colbert Gets Real About Late Show Guests Who Left Him Starstruck appeared first on Cream.

• Stephen Colbert’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its final episode on May 21, ending an 11-season run on CBS
• On the Strike Force Five reunion podcast, Colbert revealed he was “wildly attracted” to Michelle Williams when she first appeared on the show
• Colbert said the thing he’ll miss most is the young staffers who grew up alongside him — one producer started at 21 and has worked with him for 21 years
• Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are both going dark this week out of respect for Colbert’s farewell run
• Barack Obama, Tom Hanks, David Letterman and Pedro Pascal are among the guests filling Colbert’s final two weeks

Stephen Colbert is in full reflection mode. With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just days away from its May 21 finale, the host sat down with his old Strike Force Five crew — Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver — for a reunion episode of their podcast, and the conversation got personal, funny and more than a little sentimental.

The quintet hadn’t been together like this since the writers’ strike brought them all to the same table, and this time the occasion was bittersweet: a send-off for the man who built one of late night’s most politically sharp and genuinely warm hours of television. Over the course of the conversation, Colbert opened up about what he’ll carry with him — and what he could barely handle while it was happening.

The Guest He Couldn’t Look At

Jimmy Kimmel, never one to let a moment of vulnerability go unexplored, asked Colbert whether he’d ever had a guest so attractive it became a genuine problem. Colbert had an answer ready.

“I’ll tell you who I did not expect to be wildly attracted to,” he told the group. “I did not know what to do with my eyeballs when Michelle Williams was on for the first time.”

Williams — the Dawson’s Creek alum who has since become one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation — first appeared on the show in 2019 to promote the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon. She returned earlier this year to discuss Dying for Sex, the Hulu limited series for which she won a Golden Globe. But it was that first visit that apparently left Colbert completely undone.

“She sat down across from me and I went, ‘F—k, what is wrong with my head? I’d better not look directly at her for this entire interview,'” he said. He added that he finds her “so beautiful” — not just in a conventional sense, but something about her “vibe” and “face” that he genuinely didn’t see coming.

Williams wasn’t alone on Colbert’s list. He also copped to a long-standing “Rachel Weisz problem.” “When Rachel Weisz would be on, I would leave the building for fear I would say something stupid,” he said. Rebecca Ferguson also made the cut. And then there was Andrew Garfield.

“Andrew Garfield, he is so attractive,” Colbert laughed, as Kimmel immediately pounced: “And you kissed him!” Colbert clarified — or tried to: “Or he kissed me. We did get our hands tangled in each other’s hair. It was really nice.” The smooch happened during a January 2017 episode, and it apparently left an impression on both of them.

The on-screen kiss theme wasn’t just a podcast talking point this week. On Tuesday night’s Late Show, Colbert shared kisses with both Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Pedro Pascal. Louis-Dreyfus, after hearing Colbert’s list of past on-camera kisses — which includes Sally Field, Helen Mirren, Allison Janney and Jeff Daniels — made clear she wanted in. Pascal needed even less convincing. He sat down on the couch and immediately pointed to his lips.

“I got jealous,” Pascal quipped. Colbert’s response? “No need! Anytime. These lips will soon be free.”

What He’ll Actually Miss

The laughs were easy. The harder part of the Strike Force Five conversation was Colbert getting honest about loss — specifically, the kind that doesn’t get talked about when a show ends.

“I think one of the things I’m going to miss most is young people who are good at their jobs,” he said. “And who you met, and they were first out of college or something like that. Like, I was talking to one of my producers the other day. He’s worked for me for 21 years, and he started working for me when he was 21.”

“Unbelievable,” Seth Meyers responded. And it is. Twenty-one years of someone’s life, shaped in part by the rhythm of a late-night show that’s now coming to an end.

Colbert has been candid since CBS made its announcement last year that the show’s cancellation blindsided him. “I have had a great relationship with CBS. It’s one of the reasons why this was so surprising and so shocking that there was no preamble to this,” he said at the time. The network called it “purely a financial decision” — the show was reportedly costing around $40 million a year in losses with a 200-person crew — but the timing raised eyebrows. The cancellation came just days after Colbert called his parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump a “big fat bribe,” given that Paramount was simultaneously seeking federal approval for its merger with Skydance Media. CBS staffers told The Independent they viewed it as a continuation of what they called the “Trump shakedown.” CBS maintained it was about the bottom line.

A Farewell Two Weeks in the Making

Whatever the reason, the show is ending — and Colbert is doing it right. His final two weeks have been stacked with guests: Barack Obama, Tom Hanks, Hamilton star Christopher Jackson, and David Letterman, the man who held that desk before him. Obama’s return visit on May 13 featured the former president taking on Colbert’s rapid-fire “Questionert” segment, weeks after a May 5 episode filmed at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago that generated headlines of its own.

During that earlier visit, Colbert joked that people had been telling him to run for president after the show ends. Obama laughed, said Colbert had “the hair” for it, and offered a characteristically precise non-endorsement: “I think that you could perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen.” The White House responded with a statement calling Obama “a classless moron” — which, in the current climate, probably felt like a badge of honor to everyone in the Ed Sullivan Theater.

After the Late Show, Colbert’s next chapter is already set. In March, Peter Jackson announced that Colbert — a lifelong Tolkien devotee — will write a new Lord of the Rings film, currently titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. For a man who once spent 20 minutes grilling Ian McKellen about Middle-earth lore on live television, it’s a genuinely perfect next act.

His fellow late-night hosts are marking the moment in their own way. Jimmy Kimmel announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is going dark all week — airing reruns “out of deference” to Colbert’s sendoff, as he told LateNighter. Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are doing the same, running repeats while both appeared on The Late Show Monday. Kimmel also confirmed his ABC show will not produce a new episode on May 21, the night of the finale itself.

The Late Show franchise itself will go dark after May 21 — 33 years after it first launched. CBS has announced that Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen will take over the 11:35 p.m. slot. It’s a quiet end to something that was never quiet.

“These lips will soon be free,” Colbert told Pedro Pascal. But the rest of him — the wit, the warmth, the staff he watched grow up, the guests he could barely look at — that’s going to take longer to let go.

The post Colbert Opens Up About What He’ll Miss Most as Late Show Ends appeared first on Cream.

• Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver reunited with Stephen Colbert on Monday’s Late Show as Strike Force Five
• The group announced a surprise video episode of their podcast, dropping May 13 on Spotify and YouTube
• Proceeds from the new episode will benefit World Central Kitchen, as with the original 12 installments
• The Late Show’s series finale is set for May 21 — David Letterman will appear Thursday’s episode
• Jimmy Kimmel confirmed he’ll go dark on May 21 out of deference to Colbert’s sendoff

There are nights in late-night television that remind you exactly why the format matters. Monday was one of them.

Strike Force Five — Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver — reassembled on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for what felt like the most emotionally loaded half hour of TV this year. With Colbert’s series finale just nine days away, his four fellow hosts showed up on that famous Ed Sullivan Theater stage and turned a farewell into something that felt genuinely alive.

Colbert introduced them as “four of my best television friends and co-hosts of the awards-ignored podcast” — and from the moment they walked through the curtain, it was pure, unfiltered late-night magic. Fallon immediately rallied everyone for a group photo. Meyers slid into his signature pretend-smarm. Oliver was practically giddy the whole time, giggling at nearly everything but snapping to attention when a punchline needed landing. And Kimmel — well, Kimmel dropped a joke about a “young wife dying” as a metaphor for the show’s cancellation that reportedly almost knocked people out of their chairs. “It’s sad, is what I’m saying,” he deadpanned. “It’s such a tragedy.”

Where Strike Force Five Began — and Where It’s Going

For anyone who needs the origin story: Strike Force Five was born in May 2023, when the WGA strike shut down Hollywood and left five late-night hosts suddenly without writers or a show. Rather than go quiet, they started meeting weekly on Zoom — and those conversations became a podcast. Twelve episodes, all candid and funny and a little chaotic, with revenue going directly to support their out-of-work staff. “Strike Force Five is and always will be a group of five individuals who went on strike along with their writers, who were paying their writers,” Kimmel explained on air. “We did a podcast that paid a tiny portion of that.”

The show may have wrapped after the strikes ended, but the group text chain never did. Oliver mentioned getting a message from Kimmel that simply said “Oh boy” — followed by a photo of Melania Trump furious at him after he called her an “expectant widow” on his show. “Most of us have avoided that part,” Meyers quipped.

All five agreed they never quite anticipated becoming regular targets of a sitting president. Trump, who frequently calls for late-night hosts to be fired, apparently watches the shows in real time before posting about them on social media. Meyers found the silver lining: “I appreciate that he is watching linear television. If I would make my case for late night, it’s that leaders of the free world are watching it when it airs.”

Making the Case for Late Night

Colbert has grown visibly frustrated in recent months at being asked to defend late-night television’s relevance — a question that feels particularly pointed given his show is ending while others survive. On Monday, the group tackled it head-on.

Kimmel pushed back on the doom narrative hard. “Look at the figures,” he said. “More people are watching late-night television now than when Johnny Carson was on” — counting YouTube and streaming alongside traditional TV numbers. He also pointed out that when ABC briefly pulled him off air in 2025 following his comments about Charlie Kirk, viewers canceled Disney+ in protest. Then, with perfect Kimmel timing, he turned to the audience: “Why aren’t you people canceling Paramount+? Because you didn’t have it in the first place?”

Fallon kept it simple: “Late night is one of those things that has been around our whole lives. People want to go to sleep having a good laugh and go to bed happy.”

But honestly, no argument any of them made was more convincing than the segment itself.

Confessions, Kisses, and a Surprise Announcement

The night wrapped with a round of Strike Force Five confessions — specifically, which hosts had kissed one of their guests. Kimmel owned up to kissing Regis Philbin. “Not only did I kiss Regis, but he chewed my gum,” he said. Colbert, apparently, has been busy: Helen Mirren, Sally Field, Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, and Andrew Garfield all made the list. “Jane Fonda and I did not make out,” he added, “but she stuck her tongue in my ear.”

Then came the news nobody saw coming. As the group moved in for a final group hug on Colbert’s desk, he announced that an emergency Strike Force Five episode would be recorded immediately after the show — and made available Wednesday, May 13. Both Colbert and Kimmel confirmed it on Instagram: “Emergency @strikeforcefive episode loading! ⚡”

The new episode will be available on their YouTube channel, Spotify, and wherever podcasts are found. And in keeping with the spirit of the original run, proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen, José Andrés’ nonprofit that provides meals during humanitarian crises.

Kimmel also confirmed separately that he’ll air a repeat on May 21 — going dark that night “out of deference to Colbert’s sendoff.” David Letterman, Colbert’s predecessor at the Late Show desk, is set to appear on Thursday’s episode.

There was something bittersweet about watching these four men show up to celebrate — and quietly mourn — what Colbert built. It felt, as one observer put it, like a sitcom character running into old guest stars in the final few episodes. A sendoff dressed up as a party.

But if Colbert has to go out, this is how you do it. And at least now we know who has the highest rating on Wikifeet.

The post Strike Force Five Reunites on Late Show for One Last Time appeared first on Cream.