May 19, 2026

Stephen Colbert's The Late Show Faces The End, Plus Nikki Glaser, Chelsea Handler, SNL Odds, and Scrubs Revival Talk

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers Jason Zinoman’s New York Times piece asking what is lost as CBS cancels The Late Show, arguing it ends not just Stephen Colbert’s run but an institution with a tradition of emotional late-night farewells, noting The Late Show will outlast the Carson era of The Tonight Show and recalling the Letterman–Leno rivalry and Colbert’s current-events counterprogramming versus Jimmy Fallon’s lighter approach. Other items include Nikki Glaser announced as headliner for the University of Florida’s Gator Growl on Friday, October 9, and Chelsea Handler on Howie Mandel’s podcast criticizing modern dating while saying she prefers not being tethered to one person. Mac also reacts to a GQ profile of SNL’s Marcelo Hernandez, cites Late Nighter odds on SNL Season 52 cast changes, and shares John McGinley’s ideas and comments about the Scrubs revival, including a proposed Hugh Jackman gag and Dr. Cox’s storyline.

00:00 Colbert Show Ending
00:45 Late Show Legacy
02:06 Letterman Leno Rivalry
03:17 Colbert Counterprogramming
04:07 Nikki Glaser Gator Growl
04:29 Chelsea Handler Dating
05:17 Marcelo Hernandez in GQ
06:51 SNL Season 52 Odds
07:19 Scrubs Revival Pitch

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

WEBVTT

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Callaroga shock media. I don't know if you heard Steven

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Golbert Show is coming to an end. Soun hello. I'm

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Johnny Mack with your daily comedy news. Friend of the show,

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Jason Ziddiman writes for The New York Times. Jason asks

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the question, what do we lose when the Late Show

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goes away? Jason writes, Ever since Bette Miller made Johnny

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Carson sniffle with a farewell song, I have that on VHS.

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It's upstairs somewhere the VHS's label Johnny's Last Jam, which

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is what TV Guide called it on their cover that week.

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Ever since Bett Miller made Johnny Carson sniffle with a

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farewell song, the long emotional goodbye has become its own

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late night tradition, clowing to some moving to others. It's

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enough of a recognizable trope to be a reminder that

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with CBS's cancelation of The Late Show, we're losing not

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just Stephen Colbert, but also an institution. You know, now

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that this thing is right in front of us, it

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really is weird that this show's just going away. I mean,

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Dave up on it the other day, gave it a

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little bit of legacy, Like, like, I never really felt

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like the Late Show had the weight of the Tonight Show.

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But when I saw the two hosts together, and then

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you imagine a future where Colbert hosts another five, ten, fifteen,

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twenty years, and then someone else takes it over. I

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mean it was thirty years. It's weird that that's gonna

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be on, and that that just putting on Byron Allen,

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which somehow just feels worse than if they like completely

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punted and were like, Eh, we're just gonna run NCIS reruns.

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I digress. Zenman points out, believe it or not, the

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Late Show will been on the air longer than the

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coarsin version of the Tonight Show. It's giving ahead Zenmun rights.

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When Conan O'Brien quit The Tonight Show on twenty ten,

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Jerry Seinfeld poked fun at the idea of late night tradition.

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Jerry told Bill Carter, how do you not get that

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this whole thing is phony? There's no institution to offend

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Zinneman rights. I've long been sympathetic to Seinfeld's position, Comically

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exaggerated as it may have been. A healthy art form

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requires dynamism and new blood. No institution ever made me laugh,

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And yet as the Late Show approaches its end, I

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find myself as sentimental as the guest singing melancholy melodies.

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What exactly are we losing with the end of the

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Late Show? Jason takes us back to the origin of

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the Late Show. If you listen to me every day,

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you're probably familiar with the story of Letterman and Leno.

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Jason wrights fairly. With the diminished state of late night

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in today's fragmented culture, it might be hard to understand

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the passion behind this competition between men in suits joking

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at desks. But make no mistake, it was the Kendrick

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Lamar Drake drum of its day. Late night host to

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find sensibilities inspired toxic fandoms. Take me Jason for example,

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Back then, on the cusp of college, I assumed anyone

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who preferred leto was not worth knowing. Yeah, I mean

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I was heavy team Letterman and Boy. When Day was

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on at eleven thirty that first year, I watched it,

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and then I don't know if I watched any of

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the remainder I've spoke about this before. It just became

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establishment Letterman and I like the counterculture Letterman at twelve thirty.

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Be careful what you wish for. I always wish the

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show had been on earlier. Oh, as you know, I

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don't read these things ahead. I like to react. Jason wrote,

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the Late Show meant an earlier to times, a lot

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for Letterman, but it signaled something broader than that, a test,

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a public taste, a chance for justice to be served,

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a cause to get behind. Jason talked about going to

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see Letterman back in the NBC days. The line outside

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had the feel of a tailor Swift concert. The crowd

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responded to every joke. At Fever Pitch, I was surrounded

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by fellow true believers. Steven Colbert is a very different

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performer from Letterman, but when he got the job as

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Letterman's successor at The Late Show, it represented a kind

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of continuity. Since it was built in opposition to its

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NBC rival, The Late Show was both an institution and

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anti institutional. Colbert kept that dual spirit alive. The most

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obvious way Late Show remained counterprogramming involved current events, while

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the Tonight Show, led by Jimmy Fallon since twenty fourteen,

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has aimed for light a political fair. Colbert has responded

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to our moment by becoming forceful in his comic attacks

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on President Trump. Talk show hosts like Letterman have always

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made fun of presidents, network executives' bosses, something Colbert became

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too portisan and predictable to be funny, But even if true,

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this was an attempt to not just engage with our

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politicized era, but also to fill the role of topical hosts.

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In a recent GQ interview, Obert said he was more

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conservative than people think. Jason says, I believe him all

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all very sad time does more Sean though. Nicki Glazer

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will be the headliner at this year's Gator Growl. This

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announced by the University of Florida. Gator Growl is the

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school's annual student run event. So in the span of

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a week here we've gone from Nicki Glazer's soft campaigning

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to host the Oscars to hosting the Gator Growl. The

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event is Friday, Actober ninth. Students can get early access

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to tickets beginning today. Chelsea Handler is not holding back

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when it comes to modern romance. She was on Howie

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Mandel's podcast. She said it's very hard in today's world

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to meet straight guys that have their stuff together. Something's wrong.

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I don't know what's wrong. I think with dating apps

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and social media, there's just so much abundance and so

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much choice that nobody really feels like they have to

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lock it in. They could swipe through fifty women a day,

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so they're not making the effort that people used to

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make to date. Meanwhile, Handler herself said, I wouldn't say

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I'm in a relationship. I would say I'm dabbling in

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different areas of my life. I don't like to be

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tethered to one person. You may recall ten seconds ago

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I told you Chelsea was commenting on men's swapping through

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fifty pictures in one day. Chelsea said, I love the

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idea that I don't have to check in with anybody

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about anything I do. I don't have to consider or

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consult with anyone if I want to get on a

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plane and go to Paris, which I'll do at a moment's notice.

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Marcelo hernane has got a big fluff piece in GQ

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titled How Marcello Hernanez Became the Boy Prince of Comedy. Guys,

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is Marcelo Hernandez the boy Prince of comedy? Clearly, the

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answer is no, What are we basing that on that

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he does Domingo. Come on, stop. Keenan Thompson describes Marcelo

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Hernandez and says he's just a very bright soul, loves

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to laugh and loves to find what's funny about each laugh.

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He likes not only laughing, but finding a formula to

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what's making us all laugh. I'd say, oh, this guy

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serious about comedy. Well, the formula is he does Domingo

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and characters very similar to Domingo. They point out he

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is speaking voices far less theatrical, his Latino accent much

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more faint than the way he often talks in his comedy.

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He says he's in a circles keeping him humble. My

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friends are not like every Sunday being like, dude, you

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killed it last night. Once in a while you get that.

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But that's nicer than anything, but it motivates the work

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a little bit too. Wow. I didn't realize he's been

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on the show for four seasons now and the boy

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Prince of comedy has done what again in four seasons.

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Ashley Pitty and Jane Wickline are more memorable. Come on, guys.

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He gets asked for a lot of selfies and says,

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the only thing worse than taking pictures is when no

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one wants one. Now, GQ says, being around Hernandez a

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clearest day extrovert feels like hanging out with the Tasmanian

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Devil if Taz had more polished comedic chops Stavarro's Hawkius

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just so happens to walk by, s ays GQ, and

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Hernanez frantically waves him down. When Halkius recognizes this isn't

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some crazy fan of his podcast, but rather fellow comedian

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Stavarro stops Spideriff for a little bit. He's asked about

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being a heart throb, and he says, how do I

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feel about being a heart throb? Grateful Late Nighter had

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some odds on who may leave and who may return

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for SNL season fifty two. They say, most likely to depart,

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Cam Patterson odds of returning minus four hundred. Most likely

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to return, Ashley Padilla. I think everybody agrees she was

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season one's MVP. And this reminds me because someone else

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pointed this out. You know who was on this season,

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bow and Yang? Remember bow Anden Yang walked around a

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Christmas time to go do something else? How's that going?

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John McGinley has a pitch for Scrubs Season eleven slash two.

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By the way, we've learned that there will be ten

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episodes in the upcoming season. McGinley said, I think it'd

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be awesome in the revival of Scrubs. It'll never happen

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because we're up in Vancouver. But if Hugh Jackman came

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and was sick and he had to come to the

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hospital and Doctor Cox would be like, what the f

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That would be genius. That'd be so great, you know,

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would be really good. Doctor Cox has become sick and

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season ten, Cox gets a kidney problem, so he's going

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to be a patient for a while. Now, what would

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be genius is if Hugh Jackman was in a bed

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next to him in the hospital and they were just

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chirping away. McGinley explained why doctor Cox hates Hugh Jackman.

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It all comes from the writer of the show, Bill Lawrence,

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is jealous because Hugh Jackman is a great actor. He's

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a great singer, he's a great dancer. He does Broadway musicals,

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he does Marvel, he does everything, and Bill Lawrence is

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jealous of him. So we made doctor Cox jealous of that.

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That's where it comes from. I've never met Hugh Jackman.

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By all accounts, he's the nice guy on the planet.

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He's very handsome, but I'm not jealous of you. That's

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all Bill Lawrence and Bill Lawrence had fun with that.

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Cox wonders about the new dynamic between his character and

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j D. McGinley said, as we see in the eighth

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episode of the new season, the last thing on earth

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that doctor Cox wants is to expose JD to what

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I think Doctor Cox perceives as a fatal malady. And

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he doesn't want to drag JD down with him until

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he realizes he's so scared and us to tell JD

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for the first time in ten years, I need you

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and to me, it's the best episode we ever did,

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next to one. Brendan Frascher came on. We were all

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crying on the set and the camera picked it all up.

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It's very moving and I didn't see that one coming.

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He explained how his return happened. They called me because

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I was doing the Steve Carell Show and currently with

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what those guys were in Vancouver shooting and I was

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in Burbank and Zach called and I said, I have

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a great story idea, and I'm like, what because in

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the first episode, I give Zack the hospital, I make

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him the new chief of medicine. So I didn't know

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I were going to reintegrate doctor Cox from the show.

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Rooster stopped and I could go back up to Vancouver.

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McGinley says his idea for Cox's return was very different.

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I thought, what if we make Cox the worst patient

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in the history of patience, you know, somebody who just

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wants to micromanage everything. But Zach said, even better, let's

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make them really sick and scared. That was great. I

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think my job with Zach in that episode, and I'll

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say to him a couple of times, is to protect

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him from what's going on with me. I want to

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protect you from this. This isn't your journey, this is

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my descent to this malady. That's really rich to say

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to somebody. I mean, we mostly only say that to

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who our best friends or people in our families. We

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could try, but it's a big thing to try and

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protect someone. And so for Cox repeatedly in that episode

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saying I'm trying to protect you from this, that's as

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good as it gets. And that is your comedy news

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for today, We'll see you tomorrow.