We'd love an Emmy—made by the people who made the show.
When a long-running institution is cancelled, the people who built it rarely go quietly — and the writers of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' proved as much by crafting their own Emmy campaign after CBS declined to fund one. Their homemade video, evoking the warmth of an '80s sitcom, was less a marketing strategy than a human gesture: a group of suddenly unemployed storytellers asking, simply, to be remembered. The show's cancellation, officially attributed to $40 million in annual losses, carries a shadow narrative involving political pressure and a pending network merger — a reminder that in the television industry, as in most industries, the stated reason and the real reason are not always the same thing.
- A beloved late-night writing room lost their jobs when CBS cancelled the show, and now they're fighting for one last piece of recognition with nothing but creativity and an Instagram account.
- The DIY Emmy campaign — a cheerful, '80s-style roll call of writers' names — masks a sharper tension: the sense that their work was ended not purely by economics, but by political winds they had no power to resist.
- CBS's official explanation of $40 million in annual losses has been contested by Colbert and others, who argue the cancellation was timed to smooth a network merger requiring Trump administration approval.
- In a twist, CBS appears to have launched its own 'For Your Consideration' campaign even as the writers believed they'd been abandoned — suggesting either internal miscommunication or a story more tangled than it first appeared.
- The show's final episode aired May 21, yet it remains one of 18 contenders for Outstanding Variety Series, with Emmy nominations dropping July 8 — meaning the Late Show's last chapter may not yet be written.
Last weekend, the writers of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' posted a homemade Emmy campaign video on Instagram — a cheerful, '80s sitcom-style roll call of their names — after CBS declined to fund an official one. The video was created by former writer Felipe Torres Medina, who explained the situation with a pointed aside: CBS wasn't running a 'For Your Consideration' campaign, so the writers, 'for strictly financial reasons,' made their own.
The phrase landed with irony. CBS had cancelled the show citing roughly $40 million in annual losses — a clean, financial explanation for the end of a late-night institution. But the story around the cancellation had grown murkier. Colbert and others argued the network's decision was also shaped by a desire to stay in the good graces of the Trump administration ahead of a merger requiring FCC approval, making the cancellation feel less like a business call and more like a political one.
The writers' act of defiance had its own twist: despite Medina's claim that CBS had abandoned them, reports suggested the network had already launched a paid campaign on the show's behalf — raising questions about miscommunication, or something more complicated still.
None of it brought the show back. Its final episode aired May 21. But 'The Late Show' remains in contention for Outstanding Variety Series, with nominees announced July 8 — and a writing staff that, even after the lights went out, wasn't quite ready to stop making their case.
The writers of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" took matters into their own hands last weekend, posting a homemade Emmy campaign video on Instagram after CBS declined to fund an official one. The DIY advertisement, created by former writer Felipe Torres Medina, mimicked the style of an 1980s sitcom opening, featuring the show's writing staff lined up and introduced by name: Ariel Dumas, Gabe Gronli, Delmonte Bent, Steve Waltien, Caroline Lazar, Tom Purcell, Michael Brumm, Matt Lappin, Aaron Nemo, Aaron Cohen, Paul Dinello, Pratima Mani, Opus Moreschi, Brian Stack, Kate Sidley, Asher Perlman, Carley Moseley, Jay Katsir, Eliana Kwartler, John Thibodeaux, Michael Cruz Kayne, and Barry Julien. The video concluded with an image of Stephen Colbert labeled "Da Boss," accompanied by the simple plea: "We'd love an Emmy!"
In his Instagram post, Medina explained the situation plainly: "CBS is not doing a For Your Consideration campaign for us, so 'for strictly financial reasons' the @colbertlateshow writers made our own #FYC campaign." That parenthetical phrase carried weight. CBS had canceled "The Late Show" last year, citing financial losses of approximately $40 million annually as the reason for shutting down the program. The network's public explanation was straightforward: the show cost too much money to keep on the air.
But the narrative around the cancellation had become more complicated. Stephen Colbert himself, along with several liberal commentators, had suggested that financial concerns were not the whole story. They argued that CBS pulled the plug partly to curry favor with President Donald Trump ahead of a major network merger that would require FCC approval. The timing and the reasoning, from this perspective, looked less like a simple business decision and more like a political calculation.
The irony of the writers' DIY campaign lay in what happened next. Despite Medina's claim that CBS was not backing an official "For Your Consideration" push, reports indicated that the network had already launched its own campaign on behalf of the show, complete with paid advertisements. The contradiction suggested either a miscommunication within the network or a more complex situation than the writers understood.
None of this changed the fact that "The Late Show" aired its final episode on May 21. The show had been a fixture of late-night television for years, and Colbert himself had won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Series at the 2025 Emmy Awards, beating out Jimmy Kimmel and "The Daily Show." Now, even in cancellation, the program remained in contention. It was one of 18 series under consideration for Outstanding Variety Series, with official nominees set to be announced on July 8.
The writers' homemade campaign was, in its own way, a small act of defiance—a group of people who had lost their jobs making a lighthearted pitch for recognition anyway. Whether CBS's official campaign, the writers' DIY effort, or some combination of both would influence the Emmy voters remained to be seen. What was clear was that the end of "The Late Show" had not meant the end of the conversation around it.
Notable Quotes
CBS is not doing a For Your Consideration campaign for us, so 'for strictly financial reasons' the writers made our own— Felipe Torres Medina, former Late Show writer, on Instagram
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did the writers feel they needed to make their own campaign? Didn't CBS have a responsibility to do that?
CBS said it was a financial decision—the show was losing them $40 million a year. Once you cancel something, the incentive to spend money promoting it for awards kind of evaporates. But the writers still wanted recognition for their work.
And the "for strictly financial reasons" comment in the post—that seemed pointed.
It was. That phrase echoed CBS's own explanation for the cancellation, but with quotation marks around it. The writers were signaling skepticism about whether money was really the only reason.
Do you think it was?
There's a real question there. The timing, the merger needing FCC approval, the political climate—it all looked suspicious to some people. But CBS stuck to the financial story.
So what's the actual situation with the Emmy campaign? The post says CBS isn't doing one, but then reports say they are.
That's the confusing part. Either the writers didn't know CBS had already launched a campaign, or there's a gap between what different parts of the network were doing. Either way, it made the writers' DIY effort feel necessary.
Will it matter? Can a homemade Instagram video actually influence Emmy voters?
Probably not in the way a professional campaign would. But it's memorable, it's honest, and it keeps the show in the conversation. Sometimes that's enough.