Donald Trump talks about his US Presidential campaign on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' on Sept. 22, 2015, on CBS. After gloating about Colbert's cancellation, Trump could find the host with the last laugh. Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS via Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The video plays like a cave painting from the Neolithic era or, even more distantly, from when late-night television still mattered: Stephen Colbert sits in the host chair and makes amends with Donald Trump. "I want to apologize to you because I've said a few things about you over the years that are, in polite company, perhaps unforgivable," the Late Show host tells him. "I hope you'll accept my apology." "Accepted," Trump says, as he notes that Colbert has also said nice things. Related Stories TV John Oliver Says 'Late Show' Cancellation Is "Incredibly Sad" News How Hollywood Is Feeding the Frenzy Around the Epstein Files That moment unfolded a decade ago on the set of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, before Trump had yet to run in a single 2016 primary. Last week, a very different Trump-coded scene unfolded at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, as Colbert told a restive audience the show was being canceled after his contract expired at the end of next season. This time, Colbert, who's been regaling us on late night since he was hired on the Craig Kilborn-led Daily Show in 1997, had nothing to apologize for and, if anything, might have demanded an apology; the timing smacked of a separate CBS acquiescence to Trump. No one can say for sure if it played a role, of course, but Colbert had just called out parent Paramount's decision to settle a head-scratching 60 Minutes lawsuit by the president for $16 million as it awaits approval for a merger with Skydance. "I don't know if anything, anything will repair my trust in this company but, just taking a stab at it, I'd say $16 million would help," Colbert sub-tweeted Trump in his monologue, the latest in a long line of jibes aimed at the White House occupant. Trump volleyed on Truth Social on Friday: "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings." But in a battle between a jokester and a man who doesn't find him funny, Colbert may have the last laugh: He could win an Emmy thanks to The Donald. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has never won any Emmy in its previous nine seasons despite some notable streaks of excellence. (It has been nominated 31 times.) For much of that period, it competed in late-night's top category against Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which Emmy voters love the way Oliver loves a minor-league baseball team. Every year from 2017-22, Colbert went up against his fellow Daily Show alum as rival nominees in the outstanding variety talk category, and every year Oliver beat him. Then in 2023 Colbert seemed to catch a break when Oliver's show was shuffled off to outstanding variety sketch series under some jerry-rigged new rules designed to fill out that category ... only for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to beat him. In 2024, Colbert finally seemed poised to break through with Noah gone from TDS - but Colbert's old boss Jon Stewart had come back for a weekly hosting spot, and so that beat him. (Colbert did win the top Emmy a couple times back in the days of The Colbert Report, pre-CBS and pre-Trump.) This year, we seemed headed to a TDS-over-Late Show outcome once more, even with the nominee field shrunk from five just a few years ago down to three thanks to fewer submissions. Stewart has been clicking on all cylinders and given TDS its highest ratings in 10 years as he was again nominated alongside Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. There was little reason to think Emmy voters would break with precedent and vote for Colbert. Then came the Trump post - just a month before final voting begins. Whether the president actually had a hand in the cancellation matters less than the fact that Emmys voters see a partisan battle in the firing. An Emmy won't change public policy on immigration and Medicaid. But it's one of the few ways liberal Hollywood can stick it to the leader they loathe. They have done that before, particularly in this category, choosing Oliver, the most stridently political and anti-Trump of the bunch, over all his competitors. In fact, Oliver's show has never lost the top Emmy it was eligible for since Trump first became the Republican nominee in 2016 - an astonishing run of 9-0. But this may be Colbert's year too, especially if Stewart gives Colbert his props on his own TDS platform, as he almost certainly will. That's especially true if this is Colbert's last chance for a traditional Emmy. What the comic does now is anyone's guess, but mainstream TV seems an unlikely path (more likely: YouTube with maybe some of the TDS gang post-merger