‘The Daily Show’ spinoff made its debut on Oct. 17, 2005, airing 1,447 episodes through 2014

Stephen Colbert on ‘The Colbert Report’.Credit : Joel Jefferies/Comedy Central

As Stephen Colbert heads into the final stretch of The Late Show — with the CBS late-night show set to wrap in May 2026 — fans are reminiscing about the satirical program that first made him a household name: The Colbert Report.

After years as a correspondent on The Daily Show, Colbert spun off into his own Comedy Central satirical news program, which premiered on Oct. 17, 2005. Playing a larger-than-life parody of a cable news host, he delivered sharp political satire for nearly a decade before signing off in 2014 to take over The Late Show.

In September 2025, Colbert slipped back into character during a Late Show segment, reminding viewers why they fell in love with the persona in the first place.

“Hello nation, Daddy’s home,” Colbert said. “So drop trow and lay across my lap, because I’m gonna spank you with freedom until I can see the American flag reflected in your shiny, swollen asses.”

To mark the 20th anniversary of The Colbert Report, here are some of its most memorable highlights.

“The Yo App,” 2014

Colbert took aim at Yo, a real app that launched in 2014, and reduced communication to a single word: Users could only send “Yo” as a text, leaving tone and context to do the rest.

He then quipped that this “breakthrough” shouldn’t be limited to phones, imagining a world where “Yo” was the only form of communication in everyday life. To illustrate the idea, he brought out his intern, Jay, to reenact a coffee delivery gone wrong — using nothing but different inflections and volumes of “Yo.”

“Wikilobbying,” August 2011

The Colbert Report frequently poked fun at Wikipedia’s open-editing system. Remember “Wikiality,” anyone?

In 2011, Colbert joked that if “truth” on the site is just whatever people agree on, then corporations could simply pay people to rewrite pages in their favor — introducing the new practice of “Wikilobbying.”

“This is the essence of Wikilobbying. When money determines Wikipedia entries, reality has become a commodity,” Colbert said, even betting someone $5 to change the actual entry for “reality.”

He continued, “And to all those who say, ‘That’s not what reality is!’ I say, ‘Oh yeah? Look it up on Wikipedia.’ “

“Colbert Runs for President,” October 2007

Before former President Barack Obama took office in 2008, Colbert said on his show that “you cannot swing a dead cat these days without hitting a presidential candidate” before announcing his own run for president.

Colbert actually ran, too — he paid the fee for inclusion on the ballot for South Carolina; however, the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council denied his place.

“Truthiness,” October 2005

When Colbert first introduced the word “truthiness,” he said there were two kinds of people: “Those who think with their head and know with their heart.”

“Anyone can read the news to you — I promise to feel the news at you,” the Emmy Award winner added, perfectly summing up the problem of political punditry masquerading as news. “Truth that comes from the gut, not books.”

Colbert’s definition of “truthiness” was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2006.

“#CancelColbert,” March 2014

In March 2014, The Colbert Report shared a problematic post on its since-deleted official X account without context, prompting users to trend the hashtag “#CancelColbert.”

However, the joke was part of a longer segment in which he made fun of Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins) owner Dan Snyder’s establishment of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation in response to criticism over the team’s name. Of course, one month later, in April 2014, Colbert was selected to replace David Letterman as host of The Late Show, announcing his exit from the Comedy Central staple.

The Colbert Report wrapped in December 2014 after nine seasons and many funny, thought-provoking moments along the way.