Stephen Colbert followed
Super Bowl LV with a special Sunday night Late Show. "Like everything during the pandemic, the game was a lot different this year," he said in a rare politics-free monologue. "There were cardboard cutouts in the stands, players had to quarantine, and instead of Gatorade, the winning coach was doused with hand sanitizer."
Colbert may not be the world's biggest
Football fan most hours of the year, but he said he really likes the player intros. Still, "I really feel like these intros lack the pizzazz that the players in the big game deserve, and I thought, what if famous directors shot these intros instead?" he said. "Can you imagine? Well, if you can, stop it. This is TV. We do the imagining for you." The players were from the
New York Giants and Jets, not the Chiefs and Buccaneers, but The
Late Show nailed the Scorsese, Warner Herzog, and Wes Anderson intros.
The Late Show did get players in this year's Super Bowl to suggest some rule changes.
And Colbert's team created its own public service announcement about watching the Super Bowl alone. It ended up being kind of touching.
Colbert's post-Super Bowl musical guest was Metallica, and they played their biggest hit, which also served as the theme song for Mariano Rivera, the legendary former closer for the New York Yankees. It works fine for football, too.