Stephen Colbert Takes Aim at Paramount in WGA Speech: ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’

Stephen Colbert was honored at the 2026 Writers Guild Awards with the Walter Bernstein Award last night and used the opportunity to criticize his parent network Paramount . The award is given to someone who has “demonstrated with creativity, grace and bravery a willingness to confront social injustice in the face of adversity.” It is named for Walter Bernstein, an American screenwriter who was blacklisted during Hollywood’s Red Scare in the 1950s, and has only been given twice before.

During his speech Colbert noted that he hadn’t previously realized that “the blacklist was not a government policy.” “The blacklist wasn’t a law or a regulation or an executive order,” he said. “It was a voluntary industry-wide agreement to deny work to left-leaning artists out of fear that certain members of the government might publicly attack the parent corporation of these artists or the union that they belong to.

It was that threat, only the threat, of trouble that ended so many careers. And now while to be associated with Mr. Bernstein in any way is a great honor, I want...