Stephen Colbert told Showtime viewers to “hold on tight” as the presidential election remained in the balance.
The host of Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020 oversaw a slightly chaotic live show with Zoom guests, a live spot on CBS News and a five-minute version of Our Cartoon President entitled “Election Knight Rises.”
The Late Show host joked that the latter might now get another season if President Donald Trump wins another four years.
“I’m happy to be on Showtime, [but] holy sh*t, this is a weird f*cking election,” he said at the top of the show, which ran for an hour and 15 minutes on the premium cable network.
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The show opened with the Our Cartoon President segment, including a naked Bill Barr and a fight between Trump and Joe Biden. “You lose, Joe,” said the animated President. “What happened to our democracy?” replied the former vice president. “I’m immune,” Trump added.
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Colbert oversaw a stint calling which states had been called for Biden and Trump before going live to CBS News and The Most Election Night Panel 2020 featuring the likes of Bryan Cranston, Method Man, RuPaul and Ethan Hawke (all briefly).
Charlamagne Tha God listed a number of things that Black Americans had to lose from 2016 and still had to lose under a second Trump administration, including voting rights, healthcare and Chadwick Boseman.
The hosts of Showtime’s The Circus, Alex Wagner, John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon, followed before a live performance by Arcade Fire and a heartfelt end by Colbert. He admitted that he was exhausted from the last four years.
“It’s actually a good thing that we don’t know who won yet,” he said. “We’re all up late wondering whether tomorrow morning we’ll get the president we’ve been begging for.”
The special aired live from the office in the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan and was exec produced by Colbert’s The Late Show team and exec produced by Colbert, Chris Licht, Tom Purcell and Jon Stewart.