Montclair NJ’s Stephen Colbert has COVID-19

One of the most popular podcasts in America, Smartless, features Will Arnett, Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman. You can bet Arnett will be busting Bateman’s balls over this one.

The host of “The Late Show,” New Jersey’s own Stephen Colbert, has jokingly said he contracted COVID-19 on purpose just to get out of having to interview Jason Bateman Thursday night. That part is a joke. The contracting the virus part is real.

Always pouncing on a comedic opening Colbert confirmed coming down with COVID-19 and said this “proves that I will do anything to avoid interviewing Jason Bateman.”

He took the night off and the program announced repeats will air until returning on May 2. Other than the Thursday cancellation the rest of that time was an already scheduled break though, so good timing if you want to look for a silver lining.

“The Late Show” star, who lives in Montclair with his wife Evelyn, says so far he’s not hit hard by the virus.

It certainly impacted his show over the last two years. You’ll recall he was broadcasting from his home for awhile with no live audience. Other shows did the same and it was a surreal time for television. According to NJ.com once Colbert even did the show from his bathtub and renamed that single episode “The Lather Show with Scrubbin’ Colbert.”

Colbert wasn’t a fan of working that way during the pandemic. He once said, “It feels to me as if I’m shouting my show into an empty Altoid tin and then throwing it off an overpass onto the interstate. There’s no sense of feedback at all.”

Some Stephen Colbert trivia:

— He’s deaf in his right ear. (We have something in common then.)

— He has a whopping 10 siblings.

— Two of those brothers along with his dad were killed in a plane crash. It was an Eastern Airlines DC-9 that went down on September 11, 1974 on approach to Charlotte, NC.. Stephen was only ten years old.

— Some of his family members pronounce their last name differently, saying “burt” on the last syllable.

— He’s lived with his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert and their three children in Montclair, NJ for over 20 years.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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