>> reporter: the children weren't vaccinated so covid tests were required. these overthe top buffets that cruises are known for, no longer self-serve. cruises became covid hot beds at the pandemic start. "the diamond princess" was stranded almost a month after 700 became sick. 9 died. a celebrity cruise earlier this month had two positive cases. even though everyone was vaccinated. aboard this ship, celebrity says vaccinated crew members still mask up, and that they have increased cleaning and updated ventilation. what would you say to americans who are thinking, mm, not worth risking my health? >> i would say this is the place to come. our objective is to be safer here than at anywhere else on land. >> reporter: richard is the ceo and chairman of collect's parent, royal caribbean group. a year ago at this time, they were predicting the death of the cruise industry.

>> yes, they were. ha, ha. and i think you have seen how wrong they were. >> reporter: the three largest cruise companies have lost $25 billion since covid. they are optimistic returning to the high sea also lead to big profits. as the swinfords enjoy their 12th cruise, this 8-year-old speaks for many americans vacationing this summer. >> i'm just glad i'm away from home, mainly. >> reporter: there are a lot of avid cruisers on this voyage, who wouldn't have missed it for the world. as you go see a lot of them have joined us very early this morning. but the question going forward is this, what will demand look like, and will the cruise lines be able to fill big ships like this? the "cbs overnight news" will be right back.

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the late show with stephen colbert returned to the ed sullivan threeuate they are month for the first time in more than a year. up until now, it's been mostly a family affair. john dickerson caught up with host steve colbert after he reunited with his live studio audience. >> tell me about june 14th, nervous? >> yeah, very nervous. i was nervous, not necessarily that i would forget how to perform in front of an audience, but a little bit. >> reporter: two weeks ago, the slightly anxious star of "the late show with stephen colbert" returned to his workplace, the 400 person ed sullivan theater, whose seats had been empty for 460 days. >> vaccine card, i.d. and ticket. >> reporter: more than 20,000

requested tickets. attendance required proof of vaccination. they were there for much more than just a laugh. >> you have gotten me through this time. >> reporter: the reunion was a mass echo of the smaller reunions among friends separated during quarantine. >> on june 14th, did you look out the window and look at the line? >> i didn't. i've got no time looking out windows. i'm a working man. >> reporter: just your average working man, on top of a staff of hundreds which, during lockdowns, including his wife, evy. deputized into colbert's acting routine of writing, rehearsing, rewriting up until showline. his first line on reopening line came to him just before his hit the stage. >> i thought, something's missing here. and that was just checking in with the audience. because they've been through this, too. >> so how you been? >> reporter: chatty, familiar, just what you would say to an old friend. >> i don't know if i even

remember how to panlder to the most beautiful crowd in the world. >> reporter: "the late show with stephen colbert" suspended production march 12, 2020. it was chaos for a performer who needs order. >> i don't like things to change at all. why do i have a blue pen, i used to have a white pen, are you trying to kill me? i don't mind changing what i say or do, but nothing around me can change. the "show's new temporary set, my house. >> reporter: he soon began taping from his home in south carolina. >> this is going very smoothly. >> reporter: a library became a thicket. >> that's the camera i would talk into. that's the prompter. that's the tangle -- >> oh, the wires. >> reporter: colbert enlisted his three children as crew members. >> why is my son sitting on that couch, talking to my director back in new york? say hi to jim. >> hi, jim.

>> i need a mom volunteer to help me out. >> reporter: but the bulk of the heavy lifting was on the shoulders of evy, his wife of 28 years. >> oh, god. >> wat gler your tough love is one of my favorite things that happened over the last 15 months. i finished one night and fell down like a tree face down on the sofa. and i said, i don't know how on earth i'm going to keep doing this. you did not say, oh, i'm sorry. you just looked at me and said, you'll figure it out and walked out of the room. i went yeah, she's right. it was true. we did figure it out, yes. we're going the have to get used to celebrating. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ >> did you ever forget that this was your wife? >> probably. >> no. >> you would be like, this isn't working. and i'm like, i don't really work here, so don't yell at me.

>> okay, guilty. >> i had the audience hat on, he was very nice to me, because he wanted me to laugh. >> reporter: maybe colbert was her husband's audience of one. and a supinplayer. >> i want this to be a good experience for him. >> i'll come back. >> good. >> i live here. first he couldn't hear that. so i had to be more like -- one time i said something like, that's very funny. that's not a laugh. >> that's not what i said. you said, that's very funny. i said you can work a lifetime as a comedian and hear nothing more satisfying as hearing an audience member saying, that's very funny. tell another. >> and you know, i could als tell whent would help, and it was fun. i mean, being told to laugh for someone is great. >> we're not going to have any kids with us on mother's day. >> no, that's it.

>> no. i mean, yes, it's sad. >> i used to think if i could get an audience to laugh the way evy laughs, i'll be okay. for the last 15 months, that's the only laugh i had. it just confirms that's really the kind of laugh i always want. some things have changed. you heard evy. she's still there. i don't know how long that geegs to last. >> reporter: in august of last year, colbert returned to the building with his name on it. >> i'm back in new york city, as you can see. it's new york. >> reporter: for the first time since march 12. >> in the historic ed sullivan theater. >> and there's march 12 on the calendar. >> right. not only is march 12 on my calen calendar, but every day is march 12th in this room. every single day is march 12th. >> reporter: but there was still no live audience. for a performer who built a craft around reading giggles and

gafaws from the seats. >> i started off in improv and cabaret and sketch. that's all about relationship to the audience. >> that's what you train your entire life to do is get a particular sound from the audience. >> the audience makes this sound and you go oh, that worked. >> am i in the theater right now? why aren't you 400 people? >> it felt like you were playing catch in a field without someone to play catch with. >> i like to say to the audience, we do the show for you and to you, but we really do the show with me. because their energy makes the show. the clothes makes the man, but the audience makes the show. >> do you ever come down and wonder how it was? >> no. >> reporter: like many of us returning to what we used to do, colbert carries some portion of the last year and a half with him, as he encounters the familiar like his home state symbol. >> this is where i do the monologue every night. i love it. and no one has ever asked me about it.

from the right gl a where i'm f. of what we did down there. >> reporter: a reminder of essentials. even for a performer whose routine includes a reminder about the essentials. why do you slap yourself before you go out on the stage? >> because you only have one shot to do those jokes. and i want to be awake. i slap myself in the face twice, and my only rule for myself is that i have to slap myself harder than i regret having done it. that means i didn't hold back. and then i'm awake, and i say to myself, don't blow this opportunity. you want to go do these jokes. likeit.ues the "s overt ight back.

a rare government report on ufos is raising questions. the report listed 144 sightings of unidentified flying objects. only one, that's right, only one, can be explained. david martin takes a closer look. >> my gosh. >> reporter: there's no longer any doubt unidentified flying objects are real. this one was seen by now retired navy pilot alex detrick in her f-18 off the coast of california. >> there were two aircraft in our visual encounter. each aircraft had two air crews. and immediately following that, crew who were able to lock on to this thing, and get the footage.

>> reporter: it's been 17 years and a new report by the office of the director of national intelligence still can't explain that and more than 140 other sightings of so-called unidentified aerial phenomenon. some of which appear to demonstrate advanced technology. >> the way it was maneuvering and accelerating and also hovering, it seemed to have capabilities that our systems would not have been able to display or keep up with. so certainly in that moment, there was some shock and awe. >> reporter: the report says there is no evidence that these objects came from outer space and no evidence they recognize a technological breakthrough like china or russia. where they came from and where they go remain a mystery. but the director of national intelligence says they may pose a challenge to u.s. national security. >> anything that is unknown that's close to the coast, as ir

t of california, in 2019. the navy could find no leaving it next to impossible to determine who it belonged to. david martin, the pentagon. and that's the "overnight news" for this tuesday. for some of you, the news continues. for others check back later for the morning shows and "cbs this morning" or follow us online all the time on our streaming network. reporting from washington, i'm catherine herridge.

it's tuesday,un it's tuesday, june 29th, 2021, this is the "cbs morning news." agonizing wait. families hold on to hope as the death toll rises in the surfside condo collapse. what the former maintenance manager is saying about the building. blistering heat. new record highs are set again in the pacific northwest. how covid-19 is making it worse for some people who are just trying to cool off. times square shooting. for the second time in two months, an innocent bystander is shot at the new york tourist destination. the city's response following a string of gun violence.