again, the moment that is going viral is him diving over to hug rihanna. >> that's, i mean, i would imagine that's really emotional moment. >> yeah. >> two decades in prison or, hey, you walk out the door. >> or i get to hug rihanna, which can we blame him for that? >> pretty easy choice there. >> yeah. thank you for watching. the late show with stephen colbert is next. the news continues streaming on cbs news bay area. have a great night. >> the u.s. for some national parks services were hit with a cut. about 1,000 national park service employees have been let go. ♪ ♪

>> only you can prevent forest fires, because i have been let go by elon musk and my only skills are stopping forest fires and mauling cub scouts. i have to make a living. i had no choice but to start and only fans page. am i? does a bear in the woods? subscribe and find out. >> announcer: it "the late show with stephen colbert." tonight, ride check, plus, stephen welcomes george clooney and alan richman, featuring louis cato in the late show b band. live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, it is stephen colbert. ♪ ♪

stephen says thank you, everybody. welcome one and all. welcome in here, out there, all around the world. i am your host, stephen colbert. i want to start off tonight -- how is everybody doing? i am feeling a little stress these days and that is why we get together every night. how do we keep our spirits up? we get together with you. we talk things out, have a little fun and to do that, when we can, we like to do a light story at the top of a monologue. you know, just ease in. because things are messed up. you want to know how messed up

things are? the lightest story in the news is a plane crash. everyone survived, that's why it's light. and it's a miracle, considering the delta airlines flight from minneapolis to toronto yesterday landed upside down. remember the good ol' days when it was just doors flying off? seeing that plane upside down just feels wrong. it's like running into your teacher at the grocery store and they're upside down and on fire. authorities are still investigating exactly how this happened, but they do know that the crash unfolded during wind gusts of 40 mph on the ground, that were even stronger in the air. to deal with the high winds, pilots apparently attempted what is known as a crab maneuver, which involves turning a plane into the wind, and then directly onto the runway at the last moment.

and not, as i thought, when you land a plane like this. [applause] but the maneuver was unsuccessful due to earth being in the way. and the plane kinda bounced and flipped over. we have a lot of footage because everyone has a phone. in fact, one of the passengers even took a video of the evacuation. [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [laughter] >> stephen: that was also his

answer on the post flight. [applause] speaking of flaming disasters, new york city mayor and and time traveler sent back to warn us that the club stops bottle service at 4am, eric adams. he's been involved in controversy for years. for instance, while he was running to be the mayor of new york, no one could tell if he lived in new york or new jersey, once he became mayor he appointed, and later had to remove, his brother as deputy police commissioner, he announced a personal war on rats, introduced a times square robo-cop that failed as a police officer but thrived as a public urinal, and claims that the big apple is littered with unique crystals that give out a special energy. yes, in fact i saw a gentleman enjoying some of those unique crystals in the port authority bathroom. he definitely had a "special

energy." but there's no denying eric adams loves this city. just listen to how he praised all the possibilities of new york. not sure if you want to promote your city using its worst disaster. that's why hawaii doesn't have posters that say visit pearl harbor! japan could be back any day! but yesterday, adam's controversies stopped being funny and started to become hilarious, because four top deputies to eric adams have

resigned. he may be mayor, but these people are the actual administrators of the city. the resignations were from first deputy mayor,deputy mayor for health and human services, deputy mayor for operations, and deputy mayor for public safety. so, at this point, the city is being run by the remaining deputy mayor: 100 rats in a trenchcoat. okay, so how'd we get here? well, last year, the justice department indicted adams for secretly soliciting and accepting illegal campaign donations from wealthy foreigners. one blatant example is turkish airlines, which provided free travel benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars to adams, so he flew turkish airlines, even when doing so was inconvenient. he loved his free perks so much that he once asked his partner to call turkish airlines to confirm they did not have routes between new york and chile. ok, jim. throw up the ol' map.

so, it's 10 hours 30 minutes from new york to chile. but if you decide to fly through istanbul, that trip is only 27 hours. yes, a bit longer, but it does give you plenty of time to enjoy the istanbul airport arby's. that's real. not a mockup. istanbul airport arby's. you know their slogan: arbys: we have the hünkyâr beyendi. but it gets guiltier. because when planning a different trip to turkey, his staffer texted adams, "to be on the safe side, please delete all messages you send me," to which adams replied, "always do." adding, "including this one. it would be really embarrassing if it ended up in an indictment or on television being read out loud by a handsome and charming late night host, who, because he is not a public official, can

accept as much free travel as turkish airlines is willing to throw at him." so adams was in trouble. it didn't look good. but then, like a flash, it hit him: he wasn't the only high profile new york criminal in public office. so, he immediately he got all cozy with trump. and after trump won, adams traveled to palm beach to have lunch with him, and then, instead of celebrating mlk day here in new york, he left in the middle of the night to attend trump's inauguration. he had to leave at midnight. that's the only flight from new york to washington via istanbul. then, once trump took office, mayor adams promptly asked for a pardon.

he didn't get one. instead, trump wanted leverage over adams, so he called in acting us deputy attorney general and love child of lurch and uncle fester, aymil bovey. bovey, or bove, as i will call him, told the federal prosecutors who charged adams to drop the charges without prejudice, meaning the charges could be brought again in the future. so, trump now has adams by the ol' turkish delight. one problem with bove and adams' cunning plan to get the case dismissed: they can't do it alone. they needed the prosecutors in the southern district of new york to go along with it, but the leader of the manhattan office, danielle r. sassoon, resigned rather than obey, and she was followed out

the door by at least six other prosecutors. that takes courage! thankfully, the all found new jobs at the law firm of wegot, balls, and howe. one of the people who resigned rather than capitulate was lead prosecutor and jerry lewis catchphrase hagen scotten. he explained the decision to resign this way: "no system of ordered liberty can allow the government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives. if no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then i expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. but it was never going to be me." damn. that is powerful.

unfortunately, he lost the president at the word "carrot." actually, bove couldn't find anyone to do it in the manhattan office, so he was ultimately compelled to sign the motion himself, along with two other washington prosecutors, and i swear these are their real names: edward sullivan and antoinette t. bacon. i believe we have a picture of the two of them. she actually opened for the beatles. i want to hold your ham. thank you. that joke sent him to us by little richie, age eight. the mayor is already keeping his side of the bargain, because after meeting with trump's border czar, adams opened rikers island to ice agents. this is terrible. rikers is no place for ice agents. it's a place for eric adams.

now, both adams and trump border czar tom homan deny any quid pro quo here -- we drop the charges, you help us round up immigrants. but homan kind of let it slip with the fox and the friends. >> you are talking about the new alliance between ice and adames. >> if he doesn't come through, i will be back in new york city. we will be in his office saying where is the agreement we came to. >> stephen: ah ha! their agreement! but 'up his butt'? sir, he is the mayor of new york. you do not go up eric adams' butt. unless you stop in istanbul first. we've got a great show for you

tonight, my guests are george clooney and "reacher" himself, alan ritchson. but when we come back, meanwhile! join me, won't you? ♪ ♪

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's ♪ ♪ >> stephen: welcome back. say hello to louis cato in the late show band. tonight we have a cavalcade of stars. in a few moments, we have a man who lives life right and is an incredibly gifted artist, george clooney will be out here. alan will be out here in just a moment. folks, i spend most of my time, right over there, in the news workshop, handcarving a topical baroque louis quinze story frame with ornate scrolled feet and

adorned with 24-karat gold leaf detailing and a signature center shell motif lightly rubbed with a white glaze to create the timelessly sophisticated david michael tufted king upholstered bed that is my monologue. but sometimes i beach a stolen bootlegger's submarine in a pit mine's drainage creek then yank the tarp off an abandoned slag pile and stuff it with wet garbage and leaf litter then hunker down in the smuggler's junk bunk of news hat is my segment: meanwhile, in high-velocity pet owner news, a dui suspect caught speeding at over 130 miles per hour said he was in a rush to see his cat. to which the cat responded, "who are you?" meanwhile, it's time for another installment of our meanwhile

subsegment: place. all seals edition!" first up, in connecticut, police are baffled by the appearance of a loose seal in downton new haven. come on. just say you go to yale. the seal is now safe, as members of the department of energy and environmental protection assisted in retrieving him. seems like a successful rescue mission to me. seals? that was here in america. meanwhile, over-seals... in the netherlands, a guest found a seal sleeping in her hotel room. which means somewhere else in that hotel there's a lonely seal patiently waiting.

after she found the intruder the guest called the hotel and asked the sea animal rescue team to help remove the seal. the guest also informed the hotel that, before it was taken away, the seal ate all the toblerones in the mini-fridge and ordered a ton of porn. meanwhile, here in new york city, the mta has installed metal shields on turnstiles at subway stations in a feeble attempt to stop fare beating. okay, "feeble" is a little judgmental. they can't be that bad--and nope they are. that's not a criminal deterrent. that's the thing you use to smooth the icing on a cake. it would be more effective to just hang a sign on it that says "c'mon guys, stop!" but while this may look stupid, it also don't work, because reporters witnessed a young man easily clear the additional hurdle as he raced to catch his

brain, -- catches train, while a young woman crawled under the bar. then used the $2.90 she saved to get hosed down with purell after touching the floor of a subway station. we have a second subway story, but this one is about someone giving birth so you know what that means. last week, a baby girl was born on a new york city subway train in midtown. after which she was immediately arrested for fare evasion. apparently, the commuters helped the mother and multiple passengers alerted the conductor that a woman inside a train car had just given birth. after which the conductor alerted all passengers by saying [indiscernible]

meanwhile, duolingo has announced the death of their mascot "duo" the owl. adding, "you killed him. you and your lack of commitment to learning spanish. oh, you said you'd do one lesson every day, and yet, here we stand, above the rotting corpse of a cartoon owl. "espero que es-'tés' feliz." meanwhile, a japanese tech company is offering 'hangover leave' to attract workers. that is wonderful. and long overdue. studies show the first few hours with your hangover are so important. hangover leave also gives crucial time for dads to get skin to skin contact with their toilet. meanwhile, good news for people who lke to be well-informed 'and' terrified. a new ai-powered 'death clock' predicts how and when you'll die, down to the second.

luckily, a witch already told me how 'i'll' die: at age a hundred and two in a knife-fight with paul giamatti. he's gonna try to take my rice pudding in the day room -- and i am not your pudding bitch, paul! we'll be right back with george clooney. ♪ ♪ ♪ “billathi askara” by björn jason lindh ♪ [metal creaking] [camera zooming] ♪ [window slamming] woman: [gasps] [dog barking] ♪ woman: [screams] ♪ [explosion] [explosion] ♪ [lock clicks shut] with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis my skin was no longer mine. my active psoriatic arthritis joint symptoms held me back. don't let symptoms define you... emerge as you, with clearer skin. with tremfya®, most people saw 100% clear skin...

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♪ ♪

you know my first guest as an academy award-winning actor, director, producer, and philanthropist. please welcome back to "the late show," george clooney. ♪ ♪ there you go. there he is.

it is lovely to see you again. thanks for stopping by. >> we have time for one more question. >> stephen: i am excited not just to have you on the show but the fact that we are going to be neighbors for a while. i can see the wintergarden. >> my goal is to make smoking cool again. you know, for the kids. >> stephen: this is not your first play. >> i did of clay 39 years ago. >> we have a research department here. >> that is not me.

you enjoyed it enough to do it again. >> i wanted to wait until i was old enough to not remember my lines. >> good night and good luck is based on the movie you wrote with your partner. >> it's a nightmare. >> there is a weird -- when i did e.r., 12 pages a day of medical dialogue and you can come in. >> super arrhythmia tachycardia. never gotten that wrong since. [cheers and applause] now i can't remember anything. i start to do them and i sit there and i go i don't remember.

it is exciting. >> live on stage is a different beast. when you do it on camera, you capture a little bit, there is no audience. >> what is the story? what is that about? >> he is a superhero who has rubber. >> stephen: oh wait, was batman. >> it is a story about one of

the great broadcast journalists from here, cbs, back in the heyday in the 1950s and he was a very well-known and respected because of his work during world war ii. he took on mccarthy and was one of the people and his shows were instrumental in holding truth to power. that is always relevant. he really set the standard. >> it did. it cost him his job ultimately, but he did it. >> stephen: we have to take a quick break but we will be back with more george clooney. ts. we've been through some big changes. divorce, a new grandson, and as my next chapter began...

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>> stephen: we are back with the star of good night and good luck. why do you think it is a good idea to be in a play about a man who stands up against -- when he say gulf of america or gulf of mexico? stephen said my old character on my old show claimed it as the

gulf of america. i said we broke it, we bought it, it is the goals of america. >> there are no new ideas. >> trump steals all of my ideas. you better lawyer up mother [bleep] because i'm coming up. >> i don't think you are annoying don't not going to need lawyers. you will need more than that. we planned on doing it two years ago. these are subjects that my partner grant and i wrote this 20 years ago because i was being called or trader of the country and they put me on a deck of cards and called me a traitor. >> stephen: you were on that? >> i am very proud of that. i am kind of proud of it. forever, we have had this issue where power hates the fourth

estate. they hate journalism. my father is an anchorman and news man and we believe in the idea of when the other three estates, judiciary, executive, when they all fail you, you need that fourth estate, there has to be the people who can hold people to accounts and this is a moment of us at our best and i like to show and i like the idea of seeing ourselves at our best. that is always exciting. >> sometimes you are at your best when it is a very dark time because that is when you have to be your best. >> you are never at your best when it is easy. >> the whole idea of being on the right side of history is not fun at the moment when you do it. it's nice later. and you can do that later. >> stephen: and everybody thinks they knows how they would

behave during a rise in fascism. >> you pointed out some interesting prosecutors who came up very strong in the last week. i read that and it was really good. we -- it is a funny thing, i was raised a democrat and kentucky. it has been nothing but fun. i have lost a lot of elections. the first time i voted was 1980. i was a carter guy. this is democracy. >> i forgot who you were

supporting. >> it didn't work out. that is what happens. >> next time. >> it is part of democracy. there are people who agree and disagree. i have a son who plays in chess tournament, loves chess. seven years old. he is not winning all the time and he gets upset. you shake his hand and say good game, i will get you next time, and that is how you have to live by those rules. good for you. i hope you do well because our country needs that and we will meet you in 3.5 years and see where we go next. that is part of the thing. >> let's not get out over our skis. both sides have to believe there

should be rules. >> if you are saving your country, you can commit no cr crime. you mentioned your dad was a journalist. as your father still with us. >> he is not with us right now but he is at home and had his 91st birthday. >> he is old enough to remember this firsthand. >> for many reasons, i wrote it for my dad. it was important when we started to talk about it. my dad was like, you cannot -- i was talking about the war, it was very quiet. people were protesting and my dad says, do you have money and i said yes. you cannot demand freedom of speech and say don't say bad things about me. you have to take it.

my dad has always taught me, i don't care what you do. what i do hope is that you defend people with less power than you and you go after people with more power than you. if you do that, you succeed. and i believe that. and i fail often. that is okay, too. >> this goes until the summer? >> until june 8th. >> the kids? >> they did not go to nyu. they are smart kids. >> do they like the city?

>> how do you not like the city? >> it is in new york city. they love being here and we are having a fun time. it's a good schedule because you are in new york and at night you get to see the kids during the day. >> stephen: thank you so much for coming by. good luck memorizing your line. i recommend a prompter. "good night, and good luck" is in previews beginning march 12th and opens on april 3rd at the winter garden theater. george clooney, everybody. we'll be right back with the star of "reacher," alan ritchson. at&t has a new guarantee, because not everything in life is guaranteed. [multiple speakers] ahh! let it all out. and get our best deals on smartphones. like iphone 16 pro, on us. with your choice of our best plans.

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♪ ♪ >> stephen: welcome back. my next guest returns thursday as jack reacher in season three of "reacher." >> elbow on the pad. put your arm out like we are going to arm wrestle and then make a fist. i am going to grab your fist and try to pull her down while you try to stop me.

three, two -- sorry. hand slipped. >> stephen: please welcome to "the late show," alan ritchson. ♪ ♪ i will go first. >> do you want to arm wrestle? just your strength against mine. >> the last person i arm

wrestled was krasinski and he smoked me. >> he is pretty tough. >> nice to have you on. why do you think -- >> we all want to kill bad guys, don't we? >> it crosses young, old. i went to sky zone and got swarmed by 40 little 8-year-old than i was like your parents let you watch this show?

we hung a guy with nothing on her body in season one. >> do you think you can be a 48-year-old? she said it is like the mona lisa effect. >> we project because we don't know much about it. we see what we want to see in the world. we want to see justice righted immediately. how clumsy is due diligence these days? and reach her, we see here it is going right away and i want to be that person in the world and i see that and lead child, he said ladies like one-night stands too, so they want to be reacher, too. >> stephen: your character, we

saw him first on-screen portrayed by tom cruise. you guys are similar. cruise. >> cruise. thank you for what you have done for us. you have brought so many eyes to the show. >> he does his own stunts. do you? >> i do. we design the fights and action and people are like, you tell people you do your own stunts and yet, you have a stunt stunt double.

he will refine the fights, tell me i don't fight well, that i swing like a girl. he will warm the cameras up until the camera gets these big moves right and i am not sacrificing my body while he is sacrificing himself. >> stephen: have you hurt yourself doing? >> i have. i died out there. >> stephen: is this the marvel universe thing or has this always been the package? >> i was more like this. i was 6'3", practically a horse jockey. i look back. 205 pounds. 205 pounds is skinny and i was

still playing superheroes and i thought i was big but i look at photos now, i have three boys and they tell the truth. they are like you look like an 18-year-old they are and i was like that is six years ago. >> stephen: three boys? do they think you are cool? >> no. i am like i played a ninja turtle. they don't care. i have bribed them to come to set, you are going to get all the catering you want. they don't care. >> stephen: your wife? >> she doesn't care. because you have been married for 19 years. i don't know why she sticks around. >> stephen: how did you meet? >> thanks for asking. we met in ballet. this is how long did you take

ballet? >> not long. i was in her for her and then i was out. no, i was doing a theater degree in high school. part of the prereqs were dance classes so i said ballet. >> stephen: do you still have it? can you give me first, second position? >> first position, yes. a couple of pirouettes. long story short, we have three kids. >> stephen: happy ending. >> stephen: season three of "reacher" premieres thursday on amazon prime video. alan ritchson, everybody. we'll be right back.

i'm not happy with the way that pg&e handled the wildfires. yeah. yeah. i totally, totally understand. we're adding a ton of sensors. as soon as something comes in contact with the power line, it'll turn off so that there's not a risk that it's gonna fall to the ground and start a fire. okay. and i want you to be able to feel the improvements. we've been able to reduce wildfire risk from our equipment by over 90%. that's something i want to believe. [skateboard sounds]

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>> stephen: that's it for "the late show." tune in tomorrow when my guests will be robert de niro and tamara tunie. now stick around for taylor tomlinson and her panelists danny pudi, jessie ennis, and ashly burch. goodnight.