With The Late Show set to end in May, Stephen Colbert is receiving this year’s Walter Bernstein Award from the Writers Guild of America East.
The honor will be bestowed on March 8 at the WGA Awards‘ East Coast ceremony in New York, which takes place concurrently with the WGA’s West Coast ceremony in Los Angeles.
The Bernstein Award, which was established in 2017, is presented to a member “who has demonstrated with creativity, grace and bravery a willingness to confront social injustice in the face of adversity.” It is not an annual honor and has only been bestowed twice before to Jelani Cobb and Ron Nyswaner.
In his statement, Colbert said “It’s a great honor to receive the Walter Bernstein award from our Guild, and I assume this is mostly for my work on The Dana Carvey Show (possibly available on Blu-Ray!)”
Jokes aside, WGAE President Tom Fontana makes it clear in his own statement that Colbert is receiving the honor for the same reason he got a standing ovation at the Emmys in September — his bullishness on Donald Trump and, particularly, CBS parent company Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with the POTUS over the way that CBS News‘ 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris.
“Walter would be proud to see the award go to Colbert,” Fontana said in a statement. “Colbert put his career on the line to fight back against a threat to democracy that’s much greater than just the loss of the beloved Late Show. Stephen Colbert has built an empire by speaking truth to power, and we’re beyond proud to have him as a WGAE member.”
CBS has said The Late Show cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Colbert, says he’s been told that the network is planning to get out of late-night altogether because it’s not profitable anymore, but the host has repeatedly pointed out that his show was axed two days after he called Paramount Global’s settlement of Trump’s lawsuit a “big fat bribe”.
Colbert has served as host, writer and executive producer on the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2015. Earlier in his career he was a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1997 to 2005 and the host of The Colbert Report from 2005 to 2014.
The honorary award will be presented to Colbert by Robert Smigel.
