Stephen Colbert will be absent from late night for a little while longer.
The talk show host, 59, announced on Sunday, December 3, that new episodes of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will not air for the second week in a row as he continues to recover from appendix surgery.
“I’m listening to my doctors and continuing to rest and heal,” Colbert wrote via Threads. “Thank you for all your well wishes and I’ll see you soon.”
One week earlier, the talk show canceled its new episodes after Colbert revealed that he recently underwent surgery. “I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Turkey overdose, Steve? Gravy boat capsize?’” the comedian wrote via Threads on November 27. “Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix.”
Colbert went on to thank his “doctors for their care” and his wife, Evelyn “Evie” McGee-Colbert, and their kids “for putting up with me” as recovers. “Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas,” he quipped.
The TV personality and McGee-Colbert, 60, tied the knot in 1993 and share three children: daughter Madeline and sons Peter and John.
Colbert was scheduled to interview Barbra Streisand, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Stewart and Baz Luhrmann last week, but they did not appear because of the host’s absence.
This week’s scheduled guests — Mark Ruffalo, Nicki Minaj, Sara Bareilles and Sarah Paulson — won’t appear on the show, which will instead air reruns.
Colbert and his fellow late-night hosts returned to TV in October after a long hiatus prompted by the Writers Guild of America strike, which ended in September. Following his initial return, Colbert had to shut down production on The Late Show for one week as he recovered from COVID-19.
“Sorry to say, per doctor’s orders, I’m going to be out for the rest of the week,” he tweeted in October. “Resting up so that I can deliver the hand crafted, artisanal talk show that we so enjoy serving you. In the meantime, a heady blend of Paxlovid and onions in my socks (thank you, [Jimmy] Fallon) will be rebuilding my immune system.”
The onion joke was a reference to the “Strike Force Five” podcast, which Colbert hosted alongside Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver throughout the WGA strike. In one episode, Fallon, 49, claimed that his friends told him wearing a bag of onions on your feet could treat a cough.
