Colbert delivers monologue from his bathtub amid Late Show coronavirus hiatus

As the coronavirus pandemic forces late night shows to suspend production, Stephen Colbert is getting creative.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert announced last week it would go on hiatus amid concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus after previously taping without an audience, so CBS ran an old episode on Monday night. But Colbert opened the rerun with a brand new monologue ... from his bathtub.

After explaining that he and his staff are all working from home, Colbert urged viewers in this "very special social distancing edition of The Late Show" to do the same to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. He went on to cover President Trump's Monday press conference on the crisis, joking that it was far from comforting and that when all of this is over, "we will all celebrate the inauguration of anyone else."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Colbert in the monologue also ripped into Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) for suggesting on Fox News it's a "great time" to go to restaurants and pubs, cracking, "Nothing gets people to avoid going somewhere like knowing they might run into Devin Nunes." And he took down New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as well for setting a "bad example" by going to the YMCA on Monday in the middle of the pandemic just hours before gyms were set to close across the state.

"Come on Mr. Mayor," Colbert said. "Don't you know that during an epidemic, it's fun to stay at your h-o-m-e because if you don't we'll be d-e-a-d?"

Colbert concluded by again encouraging viewers to stay home amid the crisis, noting that by simply sitting on the couch watching TV, they can "save the world." Brendan Morrow