Stephen Colbert kicked off his final week of hosting The Late Show on CBS by looking back at some of the things that, for one reason or another, never aired. This included what the plan was to celebrate a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016, which Colbert revealed included naked male models. While eating some steamed chicken, Colbert recalled, “So, why do we have all the stuff that never made it to air? A lot of reasons. For one, sometimes the world just doesn't cooperate, like during the 2016 presidential election. We were doing a live special on Showtime, and no commercial breaks, and as the results started to come in, it became clear that we had planned for a different outcome.”   Stephen Colbert kicked off his last week of hosting "The Late Show" by looking back on some of the stuff that never aired, including what he would've done if Hillary Clinton won in 2016, "We were so sure that The New York Times prediction needle was right, we hired a bunch of… pic.twitter.com/8Juf1bnmCi — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 19, 2026   Putting up a blurred image of the doomed bit, Colbert continued, “We were so sure that The New York Times prediction needle was right, we hired a bunch of naked male models with the words 'I'm with her' painted on their full plump butts. Sadly, all of those models had to be put down, but first we tried to save the bit. And as the outcome became clear, we repainted their butts to say ‘We’re [bleep].’” Ultimately, the bit died along with liberal hopes that night, “And between those two butt bits, this is totally true, our co-executive producer, Matt Lappin, was backstage screaming into his headset, ‘Scrub the butts!’ Right, Matt? Is that right?” Lappin joined in lamenting Election Night 2016, “That's right. It was more like ‘Scrub the butts! Scrub the butts!’ That night even the butts cried.” Instead, Colbert was compelled to solemnly lament that his fellow citizens voted for “the asteroid.” It was a theme he would repeat eight years later in 2024 when he lamented that he was switching out his “I voted” sticker for a “I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity" one because voters, apparently, “don't care that much about democracy.” Ultimately, in 2016, Colbert ended up being the butt of the joke because he simply assumed his liberal bubble was reflective of the nation as a whole. It was a tendency that plagued The Late Show over the next 10 years as well. Here is transcript for the May 18 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 5/18/2026 11:42 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: So, why do we have all the stuff that never made it to air? A lot of reasons. For one, sometimes the world just doesn't cooperate, like during the 2016 presidential election. We were doing a live special on Showtime, and no commercial breaks, and as the results started to come in, it became clear that we had planned for a different outcome. We were so sure that The New York Times prediction needle was right, we hired a bunch of naked male models with the words "I'm with her" painted on their full plump butts. Sadly, all of those models had to be put down, but first we tried to save the bit. And as the outcome became clear, we repainted their butts to say “We’re [bleep].” And between those two butt bits, this is totally true, our co-executive producer, Matt Lappin, was backstage screaming into his headset, "Scrub the butts!” Right, Matt? Is that right? MATT LAPPIN: That's right. It was more like “Scrub the butts! Scrub the butts!” That night even the butts cried. COLBERT: Oh, if you knew that took on Matt, you would know how important evidence for them to get in one more ass joke, and that's the cleanest it's ever been.