1.5 million viewers each evening. The high viewership led the show to win multiple Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Series in 2013 and 2014 followed by Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming in 2015 even after Stephen Colbert had left the show.

The intensity of the fictional Colbert anchorman character was gradually toned down over the course of the show's run, as the host believed he would eventually need to move beyond it. He began to regard it as an act of discipline to perform as the character, later remarking,