Anti-Trump comedian Stephen Colbert is marking the end of his time at CBS on a defiant note and with a jab at President Trump and a rallying cry to his fellow Hollywood liberals to “stay strong” and “be brave.”

Two months after CBS stunned the television world with the announcement it was canceling “The Late Show,” purportedly for financial reasons, Mr. Colbert received the Emmy for best talk series.

The late-night host began his acceptance speech by thanking his employer, saying, “I want to thank CBS for giving us the privilege to be part of the late-night tradition, which I hope continues long after we are no longer doing this show.”

He then thanked his family and staff and ended on a defiant note, saying, “Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it. And … in September 2025, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor!”

The audience started to chant, “Stephen! Stephen!”

Mr. Colbert did not explicitly mention Mr. Trump, even though left-wing commentators, liberal U.S. senators, and Mr. Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts have speculated — even claimed — that the decision to cancel “The Late Show” was an effort to appease the president. Yet his comment about not knowing how much you love something until you “get a sense that you might be losing it” and his subsequent declaration of love for America appeared to be a not-so-subtle shot at the president. 

Mr. Colbert has previously insisted that America was turning into a dictatorship. In April, he spoke about the Trump administration’s reluctance to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador whom the government alleges is a member of MS-13. 

“We’re not on the way to a dictatorship, we’re on the ship,” Mr. Colbert said.

The late-night host also had a profane message to the president in July after it was disclosed that his show was getting canceled, saying, “Go f— yourself.”

Mr. Colbert declared himself a “martyr” as he read Mr. Trump’s comments suggesting another late-night antagonist of the president, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, will be fired. 

“There’s only room for one on this cross. And I gotta tell you, the view is fantastic from up here,” he said. 

While CBS skipped the tradition of planning a special to mark the 10th anniversary of Mr. Colbert’s time at “The Late Show,” the Emmys gave him the chance to be applauded and celebrated as a kind of “martyr” in the eyes of the left-wing Hollywood crowd. 

Even before the award show, Mr. Colbert was treated to a kind of martyr status by Mr. Kimmel, who spearheaded a campaign for Mr. Colbert to win the Emmy in the talk series category. 

Mr. Kimmel paid for a billboard somewhere in the Los Angeles area that read, “I’m voting for Stephen,” even though his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was nominated for the same award. 

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress criticized the decision to cancel Mr. Colbert’s show. Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested there were political considerations behind the firing, saying in a statement, “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just three days after Colbert called out CBS owner Paramount for its $16 million settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery. America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.”

Senator Chris Murphy suggested CBS was providing “monetary and political favors” to Mr. Trump, citing the “bone-chilling” decision to cancel Mr. Colbert’s show.

While critics have suggested that the decision was political and an attempt to win the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of the merger of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, with Skydance Media, industry insiders have suggested it may have just been a business decision, as the late-night model is failing. 

Paramount sources leaked to the trade press that “The Late Show” was losing $40 million a year. Mr. Colbert’s show, though the highest rated of the late-night talk shows, was not doing as well on YouTube and other social platforms and was not getting high enough advertiser rates. Mr. Colbert was also not used for many other CBS and Paramount projects, unlike Mr. Kimmel and Mr. Fallon, who have other roles at their parent networks and companies.

Industry insiders have attributed Mr. Colbert’s struggles in these areas to his harshly partisan persona. For the last 10 years, he has attacked Mr. Trump and conservatives almost every weeknight.

A legendary former host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno, criticized late-night hosts for becoming overtly political. 

“I like to think that people come to a comedy show to kind of get away from the things, the pressures of life, wherever it might be,” Mr. Leno said during an event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. “And I love political humor, don’t get me wrong, but what happens [is] people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other.”

He asked, “Why shoot for just half an audience? Why not try to get the whole?”
Despite criticism that his show only appeals to one half of the country and is not actually funny, Mr. Colbert has not shown an interest in changing his style for the remainder of his show. Shortly after CBS announced it was canceling his show, Mr. Colbert declared that the “gloves are off.” In recent weeks, he has repeatedly skewered Mr. Trump over his administration’s refusal to release more information about Jeffrey Epstein.