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Stephen Colbert says he’s going back before live audiences

FILE - Stephen Colbert attends the CBS Network 2018 Upfront at The Plaza Hotel in New York on May 16, 2018. Colbert will return to doing live shows before a studio audience on June 14. CBS said Monday that audience members at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York will be required to show proof of vaccination before being admitted, and face masks will be optional for them. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS said that Stephen Colbert’s late-night show will return to doing live episodes on June 14, with a vaccinated audience in New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater.

The show produced 205 episodes without a live audience in more than a year because of the COVID-19 outbreak.


Audience members will be required to show proof of vaccination before being allowed in Colbert’s audience, CBS said. Face masks will be optional. Staff and crew members will be tested prior to coming back to work and monitored regularly for signs of symptoms.

Colbert did his first show remotely on March 16, 2020, with a monologue taped from his bathtub at home. The show has been done from the offices at his home theater lately.

“I look forward to once again doing show for an audience I can smell and touch,” Colbert said.

“The Late Show” is the top-rated late-night entertainment show.