Stephen Colbert's Guest Wisely Canceled At The Last Minute, Avoiding A Question From The Host That Would Have Sunk His Career

Summary

• Stephen Colbert tackled controversy with banned guests, like T.J. Miller and Louis C.K., with grace and honesty.
• Colbert didn't shy away from addressing misconduct allegations, even devising a plan to bring up the delicate topics.
• Louis C.K.'s apology left much to be desired, as he admitted to his acts but also displayed a lack of understanding of power dynamics.

Looking back, Stephen Colbert had some controversial guests. He had a couple of banned comedians. One of them included T.J. Miller. The interview was perfectly awkward between the two. Miller's appearances have been few and far between on the Late Show in recent years.

Speaking of banned guests, another comedian hasn't appeared on the Late Show in seven years. Louis C.K. canceled his interview with Colbert in light of the disturbing allegations that started to surface. Colbert made a few mentions of it in the past. The host agreed that C.K. made the correct call. Colbert didn't have plans to avoid the topic of misconduct and, instead, he had already devised a plan to subtly bring it up.

Let's recap what could have been, and more.

Stephen Colbert Ripped Into Louis C.K. For Canceling, And Admits He Would Have Asked About The Misconduct Allegations

Louis C.K. was wise to have canceled his interview with Stephen Colbert back in November of 2017. Just prior to their interview, Louis C.K.'s reputation was completely destroyed as disturbing allegations of his sexual misconduct started to surface. Colbert kicked off his telecast seven years ago, telling fans his guest had wisely canceled at the last minute.

“For those of you tuning in to see my interview with Louis C.K. tonight, I have some bad news. Then I have some really bad news."

“Louis canceled tonight because The New York Times broke this story today: 5 Women Accuse Louis C.K. of Sexual Misconduct. Disturbing allegation and just the latest in an avalanche of allegations against prominent men."

In a separate interview with Samantha Bee, Colbert admitted he felt "dumb" not knowing about Louis C.K., especially given that he was a former Late Show guest. Colbert went on to reveal that the comedian was wise to have canceled given that he wasn't going to avoid questions about the ongoing allegations.

“I didn’t know about Louis [C.K.],” said Colbert. “I didn’t even know about Cosby. And that’s dumb.”

Colbert detailed his plan to bring up the allegations, “The way I was going to approach talking to him about this subject, which I knew he didn’t want to talk about, was people in the movie talk about rumors of sexual impropriety by one of the characters. At like minute 42, one of the characters says, ‘Can you separate the artist from the rumors about him?’ How would you answer that question? That was going to be my tack."

Louis C.K. last appeared on The Late Show seven years ago. At the time, Colbert was behind the comedian given his bashing of Donald Trump.

Colbert didn't shy away from his thoughts on C.K.'s allegations, and that continued online.

Stephen Colbert Continued His Attack On Louis C.K. With A Tweet On X

For a lot of the media, fans and friends, Louis C.K.' s apology left more questions than answers. That was especially the case for Stephen Colbert.

The Late Show host took to Twitter back in November of 2017, and reacted to his former guest's apology. Colbert tweeted on X, "Louis CK's apology leaves a lot to be desire. For example, I "desire" a time machine so I can go back and tell him not to masturbate in front of those women."

Over on Reddit, fans had a lot to say following Stephen Colbert's reaction.

Some of the most liked comments read:

• "I also agree with Stephen’s tweets. Louis CK’s statement might be better than the non-apologies issued by Weinstein, Spacey or Piven, but it is still awfully bad, full of narcissism and with that totally insane explanation that he thought taking your dick out was ok because he asked permission first."
• "I think Stephen and staff are taking the right approach about sexual allegations. They keep the jokes to the minimum in the monologue, but they adressed the issue generally and seriously many times in interviews. They even replaced Jeremy Piven with Ronan Farrow, which was an impressive move, worth a thousands words."
• "Hmm, I'm a bit conflicted by this tweet. Overall it's fine, Stephen's clearly on the right side here but I find it strange that he chooses this allegation to speak up about more personally. I don't know Louis CK at all but I gather that they probably knew each other so it could be taken entirely as a joke or there's actually a bit of sorrow in there and he truly wishes he could have stopped this. Or both. It's no wonder the replies are pretty toxic."

Given other details that came out later, Colbert was definitely correct to have tweeted...

Louis C.K. Owned Up To The Allegations, But His Status Hasn't Changed

Louis C.K. did issue a statement, and one that was very raw. The comedian did admit to his acts, though he did backtrack as well at certain points.

He said in his apology, "These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my d*** without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly."

"I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother. I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen."

Louis C.K. is once again in the spotlight thanks to the recent “Sorry/Not Sorry" documentary. It seems like the doc takes exception to the fact that the women that came forward paid a higher price than C.K. for his behavior.

Sorry/Not Sorry was released at the Toronto Film Festival, and was released on July 12th, 20224.