Stephen Colbert Makes Quick Return to Late-Night TV… on Monroe, Michigan Public Access

The night after The Late Show’s final episode, Stephen Colbert was back on late-night television… in Monroe, Michigan.

During his final monologue on Thursday, Colbert told the audience, “Tonight is our final broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater. We were lucky enough to be here for the last 11 years, all right? Can’t take this for granted, though technically our first show in July of 2015 was from a public access station in Monroe, Michigan for an audience of 12 people.”

Colbert was referring to his July 2015 appearance on the public access show Only in Monroe, which he used as a test run for host before taking over the Late Show, with Eminem serving as guest. “Show business being what it is these days, that’s probably where you’ll see me next,” Colbert quipped Thursday.

However, Colbert wasn’t joking: According to LateNighter, Colbert returned to Only in Monroe and the 11:35 p.m. time slot on Friday night, joined by the show’s hosts Michelle Baumann and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko Wilson as well as guests like Detroit native Jack White and actors Steve Buscemi and Jeff Daniels.

“Hello, also welcome. It’s time for another edition of Only in Monroe. I’m your guest… host Stephen Colbert,” he told the unsuspecting Monroe audience. “Since I was last here in Monroe, Michigan, I spent 11 years as the primary host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which came to an end last night. It’s been an excruciating 23 hours without being on TV, so I am grateful to be here on Monroe Community Media before they are also acquired by Paramount.”

After a monologue of Monroe-centric humor, Colbert then introduced his volunteer “music director” Jack White, who sat at the side of the stage with a boombox and a reel-to-reel.

Colbert then riffed with the Only in Monroe hosts Baumann and Wilson, during which he placed a FaceTime call to Byron Allen, whose show Comics Unleashed is replacing The Late Show in the 11:35 p.m. slot on CBS. Buscemi then appeared in a commercial for a local pizza place called Buscemi’s, and alerted the audience he is in no way connected to the restaurant.

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Later in the episode, Colbert and White had an overly in-depth conversation about chili cheese dogs that ended with them eating one “Lady and the Tramp-style,” and Jeff Daniels stopped by for a cooking segment where he taught Colbert how to make a pita sandwich using only random ingredients left in the fridge.
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When the episode ended, Colbert, White and Daniels dismantled the makeshift set and brought it to a nearby dumpster for burning, but first they had to receive permission from “the fire marshal”: Colbert then placed a FaceTime call to Marshall Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem, his Only in Monroe guest in 2015. “Stephen, Marshall here, you’re absolutely clear to burn that motherfucker down,” the rapper said.

“Well, that’s a wrap,” Colbert said as the episode concluded. “Thanks for watching in Only in Monroe, and if you watched any of my other talk shows over the years, thanks for watching those too. Until we see each other again, I’ll be only here, only on Only in Monroe.”