As his time as host of The Late Show winds down, CBS’s Stephen Colbert was awarded the Writers Guild of America’s Walter Bernstein Award on Sunday in another example of liberal celebrities giving other liberal celebrities awards for their liberalism. Introducing Colbert, Robert Smigel hailed Colbert as someone who speaks “truth to power,” by which he just meant that Colbert mocks Republican presidents.
Smigel, best known for his work on Saturday Night Live and as the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, recalled Colbert’s appearance at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, “And as I watched Stephen bomb and bomb and bomb, it occurred to me: Anyone else I’d ever seen do this gig would have ‘read the room,’ would have done something to break the tension, a self-effacing, improv quip, or an exaggerated wipe of the brow, anything to get the crowd on their side. But Stephen just kept going. And I know at some point, he clearly read the room. And he just said to himself, “Fuck the room.’”
At Sunday’s Writers Guild Awards, Robert Smigle introduced Stephen Colbert winning the Walter Bernstein Award hypes his 2006 WHCD performance “he just said to himself, ‘fuck the room.’ And he just kept tearing into the president three feet to his right, never breaking characters.… pic.twitter.com/F8LJCiNvYH
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 10, 2026
Colbert’s attacks on President Bush led Smigel to add, “And he just kept tearing into the president three feet to his right, never breaking character. Stephen Colbert was not going to sell out Stephen Colbert. And that’s the night Stephen went from being my comedy crush to my comedy hero.”
As if Presidents Obama and Biden never happened, Smigel fast-forwarded to the present day, “And we all know what’s going on now. Things are so messed up that now they’re clearly our tangible consequences to speaking truth to power. But Stephen, you’ve always led with integrity.”
Smigel added, “And recently, of course, Stephen, you called out your new bosses for bowing to Trump ‘like dogs’ to get their merger done. Stephen, I know you love your staff and your writers. I know how badly you feel for them. And I also hope—I hope you also know that they wouldn’t want you to be anything less than the decent and brave soul that you are.”
Later, Colbert quips, “As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised, but then Paramount bought it. And evidently the revolution was losing like $40 million a year. It had to go. I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack” pic.twitter.com/SHLDJeYiRy
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 10, 2026
During his acceptance speech, Colbert took a dig at his Paramount bosses, “This is not the 1950s. This is not the Red Scare. And as far as I can tell, no one in late night is fomenting a revolution. As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised, but then Paramount bought it. And evidently the revolution was losing like $40 million a year. It had to go. I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack.”
Sunday’s WGA ceremony illustrated one thing perfectly: whether it is Smigel, Colbert, or the WHCD, the idea of speaking truth to power means attacking Republicans. The WGA was not going to give anyone an award for their biting satirical critiques of Obama or Biden, but there are millions of dollars to be made and awards to be earned if you attack Bush, Trump, and presumably whoever the next Republican president will be.
Here is a transcript for the March 8 ceremony:
Writers Guild Awards
3/8/2026
ROBERT SMIGEL: And as I watched Stephen bomb and bomb and bomb, it occurred to me: Anyone else I’d ever seen do this gig would have “read the room,” would have done something to break the tension, a self-effacing, improv quip or an exaggerated wipe of the brow, anything to get the crowd on their side.
But Stephen just kept going. And I know at some point, he clearly read the room. And he just said to himself, “Fuck the room.”
And he just kept tearing into the president three feet to his right, never breaking character. Stephen Colbert was not going to sell out Stephen Colbert. And that’s the night Stephen went from being my comedy crush to my comedy hero.
And we all know what’s going on now. Things are so messed up that now they’re clearly our tangible consequences to speaking truth to power. But Stephen, you’ve always led with integrity. When so many comedians take the easy route of mocking religion, Stephen, you never shy from speaking up for your faith.
And that means a lot to the many of us who are afraid to speak up for our faith. And you were also willing—I don’t know if people remember this. He was—Stephen was willing to address the allegations about your boss, Les Moonves, before anyone in the industry, any other late night show wanted to touch that story.
And recently, of course, Stephen, you called out your new bosses for bowing to Trump [Trump voice] “like dogs” to get their merger done. Stephen, I know you love your staff and your writers. I know how badly you feel for them. And I also hope—I hope you also know that they wouldn’t want you to be anything less than the decent and brave soul that you are.
…
STEPHEN COLBERT: Bernstein, as you saw, was a brilliant writer, and as you know, was blacklisted. And I did a little research, and as I was doing the research on Walter Bernstein for this award, I discovered—I don’t know why I didn’t know this. It dawned on me. The blacklist was not a government policy. The blacklist wasn’t a law or a regulation or an executive order.
It was a voluntary, industry-wide agreement to deny work to left-leaning artists out of fear that certain members of the government might publicly attack the parent corporation of these artists or the union they belong to. It was that threat, only the threat of trouble that ended so many careers. And now, while I’d be associated with Mr. Bernstein in any way is a great honor.
I want to be clear that I do not deserve the implied parallel here. This is not the 1950s. This is not the Red Scare. And as far as I can tell, no one in late night is fomenting a revolution. As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised, but then Paramount bought it. And evidently the revolution was losing like $40 million a year. It had to go. I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack.
