Stephen Colbert is getting on the good side of Skydance and David Ellison early — sort of. The CBS host interrupted his most recent monologue to praise the company on the verge of merging with his show’s parent company, Paramount Global.
On Tuesday night, Colbert spent most of his monologue joking through Kamala Harris’ debate prep strategy compared to Donald Trump’s. “Harris is also getting a boost from the people who really matter: corporations. Oh, which reminds me,” Colbert said, spinning to face another camera. “All hail Skydance!”
As the late night host raised his hands in honor of what will likely be his new corporate overseer, logos for both Skydance and Paramount appeared onscreen.
“May your glorious reign over Paramount last 10,000 eons. All hail!” Colbert continued. “Ten thousand eons or until we receive a slightly higher bid, let us do the dance of the sky. The sun rises, the sun sets, but it never sets on David Ellison, our spice lord.”
That “dance of the sky” involved a great deal of hopping around as Colbert wagged his fingers about. “We’re working on it,” Colbert said after he was through with his dance, barely holding back his smile.
In July of this year, Skydance announced it intended to merge with Paramount Global in a $8 billion deal. Under this agreement, Skydance would acquire Paramount’s privately-held controlling shareholder National Amusements and, once that was completed, perform an all-stock merger with the company. If the deal goes through, it’s expected to close in the first half of 2025. The $8 billion offer has already been approved by Paramount’s board.
The “slightly higher bid” jab is a reference to Edgar Bronfman Jr. During Paramount’s go-shop clause, Bronfman originally offered $4.3 billion before upping his offer to $6 billion for Paramount. The bid, which was thrown together in just a couple of weeks, disappeared when Bronfman dropped out of the bidding process in late August.
That wasn’t the only dancing Colbert did on Monday night. While riffing about Harris’ debate practice sessions, which have been described as “highly choreographed,” Colbert did the Macarena. Or at least he tried. The CBS host’s first attempt at the dance ended with Colbert frowning to himself and starting over after missing a couple of moves. Naturally, this remix came with some new lyrics.
“I have some points to make about inflation. I have some policies on immigration,” Colbert said, finally remembering how to do the wedding staple. As he nailed the dance, his studio audience burst into cheering and applause, drowning out his lyrics. Watch the full video above.
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