“I’d just be a little older,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published May 6. “And it would have been my choice, and I probably would have known what the final show was going to be a little bit earlier.”

As the 62-year-old explained, when it came time to say goodbye to his former series The Colbert Report, he had picked the date of the final show two years ahead of time. 

“Well, we didn’t pick this day,” he said of his Late Show ending. “We know what it’ll be now, but it took a few months.”

“But maybe they gave me a gift because I had a lot of jokes I could make about the end of the show,” he admitted, “and if I’d decided to end the show, then I’m the bad guy—hard to make jokes about that.”

Luckily, the comedian—who shares kids Madeleine, Peter and John with wife Evelyn "Evie" McGee-Colbert—also has his post Late Show gig lined up as he’ll be developing a script for an upcoming Lord of the Rings adaptation alongside son Peter. And as a self-proclaimed superfan of the novels, Colbert couldn’t hide his excitement over his new role. 

"I’m pretty happy about it,” he told director Peter Jackson in a March video posted to X. “You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me.”

For a look at more shows that have been canceled or renewed so far this year, keep reading.