Why is The Late Show with Stephen Colbert not new this week May 27-31?

Wondering why the monologue on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert seems dated this week? That's because CBS's late-night talk show is not airing new episodes for the week of May 27-31, opting for reruns each night at 11:35 pm ET/PT. But why?

An official reason has not been given by CBS, but the most likely explanation is that Colbert and his staff are taking advantage of Monday, May 27 being the Memorial Day holiday and getting an early week of summer vacation in. The Late Show is not the only late-night program doing this, as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live and CBS's other late-night program, After Midnight, are all expected to take at least some time off this week. Popular cable late-night show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver also took off on Sunday, May 26, for the holiday weekend. These types of breaks are built into late-night schedules to give hosts and their teams some time off throughout the year.

But as we said, episodes of The Late Show are still going to air at their usual time of 11:35 pm ET/PT, they'll just be episodes that aired earlier in May. Here is a full look at the schedule of episodes airing from Monday, May 27, to Friday, May 31:

Monday, May 27

• Ryan Gosling takes “The Colbert Questionert”

• Desi Lydic

• Original airdate May 9, 2024

Tuesday, May 28

• Jen Psaki

• Performance by Elyanna

• Original airdate May 8, 2024

Wednesday, May 29

• John Leguizamo

• Laura Coates

• Original airdate May 2, 2024

Thursday, May 30

• Jennifer Hudson

• Marisa Abela

• Original airdate May 14, 2024

Friday, May 31

• Steve Carell

• Performance by Paul Simon

• Original airdate May 13, 2024

If none of those episodes grab your attention, then you can go back and watch other past episodes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on-demand with a Paramount Plus subscription. There are currently a few options for would-be subscribers interested in the streamer.

CBS has not released a schedule beyond May 31, so we don't definitively know as of right now when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to return with new episodes. However, the expectation is that the show will be back on Monday, June 3.