Anderson Cooper on Thursday joined the chorus of people expressing shock and sadness over CBS’ decision to ending The Late Show and the memorable run of Stephen Colbert.

During his CNN show, Cooper said that “Stephen Colbert is smart and he is funny, and he has actual conversations with people on his program.”

“I was going to show you a bunch of funny exchanges that I’ve had the pleasure of having with him on his show over the years…but I think the thing that many of us love about Stephen Colbert is that he is, at heart, an incredibly decent human being with an amazing wife and family and strong faith,” Cooper continued.

Cooper then teed up an exchange he had with Colbert in 2019, after Cooper’s mom Gloria Vanderbilt died. “I started to ask him about loss, because his dad and his two brothers, Peter and Paul, died in a plane crash when Steven was 10 years old. And I think this exchange shows a lot about who Stephen Colbert is and why so many people love him.”

During the interview that Cooper was doing about the host of The Late Show, Cooper asked Colbert to expand on a comment the late night star once made about learning to “love the thing that I most wish had not happened.” Cooper starts to choke up as he repeats the rest of Colbert’s comment. “‘What punishments of God are not gifts?’ You really believe that?”

Colbert will remain as host of The Late Show through the rest of the 2025-26 season. A press release from the CBS said this was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and “is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”