“No one gets into this business because everything in their life has gone well so they were built for tough roads.”

Stéphane Colbert delivered a special speech to his audience Wednesday after former President Donald Trumpvictory over the vice president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

In a clip posted to official Late Show with Stephen Colbert Taking to his Instagram account ahead of Wednesday’s episode, the longtime late-night host looked directly into the camera and opened, “Hi. How are you? If you watch this show regularly, I’m guessing you n ‘Not very well. Yeah, me neither.’

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He continued, “You know, today some people said to me, ‘Sorry, you have to do a show tonight.’ That’s nice of them to say, but I don’t need to put on a show, I get put on a show tonight.”

The late-night host explained that he was grateful to be with “all these talented people, these people here, the people you’ll never see with the audience at the (Ed Sullivan Theater), with you people at home.” He explained, “Especially in times like this, what do we most want to be? Not alone.”

Colbert assured viewers that he still planned to put on a comedy show despite the election result leaving him depressed. “There will be jokes, because that’s what we do,” he said. “And I’ll let you in on a little secret. No one gets into this business because everything in their life has gone well, and so they were built for rough roads. Are you ready?”

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Colbert joked about preparing for a normal cold open, as if he wasn’t just plunging viewers into an ice bath of a cold open. Clips of anchors preparing for Trump’s possible re-election fade into the words “and now the world is reacting to America’s decision.” A panoply of parodic international “responses” followed, from a Canadian hockey player hitting the goal with his stick to Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter (representing England) saying: “I’ll be in my room, not doing any noise and pretending not to. It doesn’t exist,” to a group of dancing Russian soldiers.

The late show isn’t a strictly political show, but Colbert has deep roots in political television. He was hired as a correspondent for The daily show in 1997, while it was still hosted by Craig Kilborn. After Jon Stewart took over in 1999 and increased the political invective, Colbert really began to shine, developing a persona satirizing the Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck types of the time.

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The success of Colbert’s character earned him his own political talk show in 2005. He remained in character on The Colbert report throughout its nine years of existence. In 2016, two years later The Colbert report stopped broadcasting, Colbert decreed that the high-intensity, ignorant, conflicted sycophant character “will never be seen again.”

He said Weekly Entertainment in June that he first felt under pressure to “reinvent” the late-night format when he succeeded David Letterman has The late show in 2015, but quickly fell into the well-established rhythm. “I was determined not to do a monologue…I told myself, ‘I’m not a stand-up. I’m an actor.’ And then I fell in love with monologue. You just have to relax, have a good time and follow your instincts when it comes to the stories that interest you,” he said.

In another advanced video from tonight Late show In this episode, Colbert addressed the studio audience, rather than the camera, with a joke. “Well, damn. It happened. Again. After a bizarre and vicious campaign fueled by a desperate need to stay out of jail, Donald Trump won the 2024 election.”

He confirmed that “the deep shock and sense of loss is enormous,” but encouraged his audience to “see the bright side: at least there will be a peaceful transfer of power!” Mike Penceolly olly oxen free!” he shouted, referring to the attempted insurrection of January 6, 2021 and former Vice President Pence’s refusal to accede to Trump’s seditious demands.

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He shared that “as a late night host, people often say to me, ‘Come on, part of you must want Trump to win because he gives you so much material to work with.’ But he said that wasn’t the case, explaining: “No one says to the guy cleaning the bathroom, ‘Wow, you must love it when someone has explosive diarrhea, there’s so much material with which one to work on!”

For those who look forward to walking the difficult path with Colbert, The Late Show is broadcast weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and Paramount Plus.