© Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY
Entertainment: 69th Annual Emmy Awards
NEW YORK (77 WABC) – After more than a year of being closed down to a full crowd, the Ed Sullivan Theater is opening up to full capacity starting in June.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will resume taping with a full studio audience starting June 14. The show was originally suspended on March 12, 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Colbert produced 205 episodes from his home.
JUST ANNOUNCED: @ColbertLateShow will return to The Ed Sullivan Theater on June 14 welcoming back a full and fully-vaccinated studio audience.
It's the first network late night show to make that move.@MegOliver explains. pic.twitter.com/ECICWlDRgN
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 24, 2021
🚨BREAKING!🚨We return to the Ed Sullivan Theater with a FULL AUDIENCE on Monday, June 14th! pic.twitter.com/i4rQ3BAk5f
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 24, 2021
“Over the last 437 days, my staff and crew (and family!) have amazed me with their professionalism and creativity as we made shows for an audience we couldn’t see or hear,” Colbert said in a statement today. “I look forward to once again doing shows for an audience I can smell and touch.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced it in a press conference Monday.
“A full audience of vaccinated folks will soon be enjoying one of the great comedians of our time,” de Blasio said. “There’s no stopping New York. There’s no stopping Stephen Colbert.”
The theater holds a capacity of 400, the largest of the late night shows in NYC. In order to attend a taping, all audience members will have to be vaccinated but face masks will be optional. Like Colbert’s show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is also going to reopen to a full audience, however the date for that is unclear. Previously, Fallon was allowing a limited audience for his tapings as of March.
