The Significance of Stephen Colbert’s Memorable Appearance on Elsbeth

The following contains light spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of Elsbeth.

Robert and Michelle King are known for predicting the future. The creators of The Good Wife and its spinoffs, The Good Fight and Elsbeth, among many others, have prophesized everything from Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s divorce to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s rumored presidential dreams. An episode of The Good Fight about censorship in China was even censored in China.

So it’s no surprise, then, that the season three premiere of Elsbeth, which airs on CBS on the Oct. 12, before resuming its usual Thursday night slot on Oct. 16, takes on the late night talk show controversies of recent months. The episode stars Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert also on CBS, as an infamously thorny late night host not unlike the fictionalized character of the same name he portrayed on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

This time, Colbert is the abusive boss Scotty Bristol of Way Late With Scotty Bristol, who berates his writers, helmed by a producer played by Amy Sedaris. Scotty, Sedaris’ character Laurel, and her husband, Mickey (Andy Richter) were all in an improv troop together when they were younger. Laurel uses this history to seduce and kill Scotty when he won’t grant Mickey time off to deal with his health issues.

The well timed episode comes three months after it was announced that The Late Show would end with its current season, concluding in May 2026. The cancellation came after Colbert called CBS’s parent company, Paramount, settling a $16 million lawsuit with President Donald Trump a “big fat bribe” on the July 14 episode of his show. Paramount needed government approval from the Federal Communications Commission in order to go ahead with its merger with Skydance.

In further late night commotion, in the aftermath of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, late night host Jimmy Kimmel had his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, suspended for six days after commentating on Kirk’s death. 

If Colbert’s cancellation was qualified as a “financial decision,” Kimmel’s suspension made it clear that a troubling precedent was being set for political censorship.

According to star Carrie Preston, who plays the eponymous Elsbeth Tascioni, a quirky lawyer who appeared in The Good Wife and Fight turned internal investigator sent to monitor the New York Police Department and proves herself to have a savant-like knack for solving murders, the premiere episode was filmed the week after it was announced that The Late Show was cancelled.

“It looks like your writers have the biggest balls in the world to have me on and murder me,” Colbert said on the Sept. 25 episode of The Late Show on which Preston was a guest. “Do it twice in one week—I’m fine!”

Though the episode doesn’t deal with government censorship, instead taking on the cozy howcatchem tone of the rest of the series, Elsbeth does poke fun at the current political climate. For example, when Way Late is preempted because of Bristol’s murder, Elsbeth jokes, “Oh no, what happened? Is it Greenland?,” referencing President Trump’s preoccupation with buying the European island.

The cut-throat, so to speak, nature of comedy is also referenced, with several characters—including a detective who moonlights as a stand up comic played by Merrily We Roll Along’s Lindsay Mendez—incredulously remarking “this business” as increasingly dubious work practices come to light throughout the episode, like stealing jokes and hazing new hires.

“It’s a hostile work environment but we are all so grateful to have a job,” one comedy writer says in what might be the most prescient line of all.