Stephen Colbert Shaves Beard on Jimmy Kimmel Live! After Emmys Win
Stephen Colbert walked onto Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a beard and walked off without one.
The former Late Show host shaved live during the 15 September edition, two days after his programme won seven Emmy Awards in its final season, the top US television awards, The Hollywood Reporter. ABC listed the outing as Season 25, Episode 4, with Colbert as the guest ABC.
Colbert said the shave kept a promise to his wife Evie. She hates the beard, he said, and had warned him the “kiss count” would drop if he grew it. He had told her he would remove it if he won an Emmy. Kimmel pressed him to do it on the spot, Rolling Stone reported, and Colbert answered: “From the neck up, right?” He kept his word.
The two hosts also revisited Emmy night itself. Colbert, Kimmel, Jon Stewart and John Oliver posed together for a photograph nicknamed the endangered table. Colbert said he and Kimmel shared a beard-on-beard kiss that night that the television cameras missed.
The lengthy interview moved well beyond facial hair. Colbert presented Kimmel with his Captain America shield, a moment captured in the title of the full interview: “Stephen Colbert on the Emmys, His Wife Hating His Beard & Gifting Jimmy His Captain America Shield” YouTube. He said broadcaster CBS let him keep his Late Show suits and that he now has 40 in storage. One tan suit earned a story of its own. Colbert wore it to the wedding of the daughter of manager James “Baby Doll” Dixon, where Kimmel spilled red wine on it.
Colbert also spoke about life after The Late Show and an upcoming Lord of the Rings film. ABC has previously described his Kimmel appearances as covering both the Emmy win and learning his own show was ending. The tone on Tuesday was warm and chatty, with two long-time peers comparing notes.
There is history here. Colbert had publicly backed Kimmel in the Emmys race for outstanding variety series Variety. Kimmel had earlier asked Colbert to guest-host Jimmy Kimmel Live!, an offer Colbert turned down. Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c and episodes stream on Hulu ABC.
For fans, this means a clean-shaven Colbert for whatever comes next. No new job was announced. Just a kept promise, a missing beard and a shield changing hands.
