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Colbert Says There Was No Pushback From CBS for Discussing Les Moonves on Late Show

During his appearance on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live last night, Stephen Colbert was asked if there was any resistance from CBS over his choice to address the Les Moonves allegations during his Late Show monologue last month. According to Colbert, nope. “As soon as I heard the article came out, I knew that I’d have to talk about it on Monday night because we talk about everything,” he said. “That’s kind of all I worked on that Monday was what I wanted to say, and about a half an hour before we taped we told CBS. We said ‘We’re gonna do this, and we’re going to do this.’ And there was no pushback. Nobody said a damn thing.”

Colbert was also asked if he regretted letting Sean Spicer make a cameo during Colbert’s Emmys hosting gig last year — another nope. “Not at all. I had no fear that it would redeem him,” he said. “I knew that there’d be some people who wouldn’t like it. The funny thing was is that right before I brought him out, I looked around the room and I thought to myself ‘There’s not one joke I’ve told tonight to this room full of liberals that was a risk — other than the one I’m about to do.’ And it was the joke I most wanted to do.”

In a longer clip from the WWHL after-show, Colbert addressed whether or not everything is becoming “problematic” these days — this time, not a nope. “Yes it is, but it doesn’t mean that things aren’t problematic. Often, things that are problematic are communities have felt underrepresented or told to get over their feelings. But their feelings are always valid, so who am I as straight, white, Christian male American I guess, to go like, ‘Oh, get over yourself,’” he said. “So while I don’t always understand the problematic nature of it, I always respect someone’s feelings about what’s problematic and I want to know what they mean.”

If you’re an Amy Sedaris fan, be sure to watch until the end of that last clip to see Colbert shower his longtime friend with compliments, including this one: “She’s very loving and giving, and she’s very kind, and she loves to make you feel better with food.”

Colbert: There Was No Pushback From CBS for Talking Moonves