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Stephen Colbert Is Glad He's Not Doing The Colbert Report in the Trump Era

Their characters are too similar

liam-mathews
Liam Mathews

Stephen Colbert is grateful that he doesn't have to be the Colbert Report blowhard version of himself in the Trump presidency.

The Late Show host was at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Saturday to promote Our Cartoon President, the upcoming animated satire series he executive-produces, when he was asked by a reporter if the "Stephen Colbert" character from The Colbert Report would be a Trump supporter. "One hundred percent," Colbert answered, emphasizing every syllable.

"As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I'm so happy to not do The Colbert Report anymore, even though I loved it, is that Trump is such a similar character to my old character. In other words, he's such a poorly-informed, self-important idiot, that it would be very hard for me to leapfrog him." He said he had a similar problem with former Fox News pundit Glenn Beck.

"He'd definitely be a fan. He'd be onboard. He'd be MAGA all the way," he said.

Check out our complete TCA coverage here

Colbert's answer seems obvious, but it's actually somewhat of an outlier among creators of conservative characters; for example, Nick Offerman, who played arch-libertarian Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, said that Swanson would have voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But Colbert is honest about where his character's loyalty would lie. And he's probably relieved that he doesn't have to pretend to be a Trump supporter every night.

Our Cartoon President premieres Sunday, Feb. 11 at 8/7c on Showtime, but Showtime subscribers can get an early preview of the first episode on Showtime's digital platforms on Jan. 28 ahead of Trump's State of the Union address on Jan. 30.

(Full disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, Showtime's parent company.)