Stephen Colbert Gives Emotional Emmy Speech: ‘I Have Never Loved My Country More Desperately’

Stephen Colbert delivered an emotional speech on Sunday as he took home the Emmy win for Outstanding Talk Series.

The award held special meaning after his show, “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” was canceled and won’t be returning after this season.

Stephen started by saying, “I want to thank CBS for giving us the privilege to be part of the late-night tradition which I hope continues long after we're no longer doing this show.”

He went on to thank his wife Evie and children Maline, Peter and John, before dedicating the award to his parents and “a young woman who should be here tonight, Amy Cole.”

According to People magazine, Amy was his longtime assistant, who died in 2024 at just 53. According to Deadline, Cole had battled cancer.

Colbert went on to explain that 10 years ago he discussed the concept of his late-night show with Spike Jonze. 

“I said, ‘Ah, Spike, I don't know how you could do it, but I'd kind of like to do a late-night show, you know, a late-night comedy show that was about love.’ And I don't know if I ever figured that out, but at a certain point, and you can guess what that point was, I realized that in some ways we were doing a late-night comedy show about loss. And that's related to love because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it. And 10 years later, in September of 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor!”

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour spoke with another comedian, John Oliver, backstage, where he reacted to Stephen Colbert’s win.

John called it a “huge relief” that Stephen won, saying, “We were all rooting for him so much... That’ll be the highlight of the night.”