It could be tough to remain optimistic within the wake of a main work transition, leaving a job that has outlined a profession for years. Stephen Colbert, the longtime host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is wrapping up his 11-year run this Thursday. NCS analyst Brian Stelter says his public response is inspiring for leaders and professionals.
“He’s been choosing to be so positive, he’s radiated gratitude,” Stelter just lately stated in a panel at Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit with editor Indrani Sen, including that Colbert has operated beneath the mindset that “‘I’d rather be grateful for the time I had on air than be angry that it’s ending.’”
Colbert took over The Late Show in September 2015, changing David Letterman, who had hosted the CBS franchise for 22 years, and has anchored the 11:35 p.m. slot ever since. Over greater than a decade behind the desk, he grew to become the No. 1 host at 11:30 p.m. for 9 straight years, and his run was capped by a long-elusive trade honor: In September 2025, The Late Show gained its first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series, beating Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Daily Show—the primary broadcast late-night show to win the class because it was created in 2015.
The victory got here after CBS introduced in July 2025 that the 2025–26 season could be the final for The Late Show—not simply with Colbert as host, however for the franchise altogether—with the community citing monetary pressures amid a broader collapse in late-night advert income. Colbert’s remaining episode is scheduled to air Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 11:35 p.m., closing out an 11-season run.
Stelter, whose e-book Top of the Morning impressed the hit Apple sequence The Morning Show, has firsthand information of how feelings can run excessive within the office. And the analyst and TV producer admires simply how properly Colbert was in a position to take his show’s dissolution on the chin, regardless of the tensions surrounding it.
Stelter says that the leisure icon possible believes that he’s the “victim of a political hit” and that there are different points behind the scenes. The late-night show’s community, CBS, said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” simply as guardian firm Paramount was searching for the Trump administration’s approval for its multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance.
However, Stelter notes that Colbert nonetheless approached his departure with grace, displaying his appreciation for main the show for 11 seasons. It’s a management lesson the NCS analyst is emulating in his personal profession and bringing again to his workplaces throughout information and leisure.
“I really admire that, and I found myself wanting to lift that up in my reports, because we need those kinds of role models,” The Morning Show producer continued. “You want role fashions in each section of your profession, phases of your life, about methods to go about residing a sure approach.
“I’m thinking about Colbert as exactly what you want to be, as opposed to…people who are fearful, who are acting out of fear, who are acting out of self-protection.”