Stephen Colbert Nearly Ruined His Own Surprise 60th Birthday Party Thrown by Strike Force Five

“You told us right away, ‘I didn’t want to come to this dinner at all,’” Seth Meyers says.

Stephen Colbert came close to ruining his own surprise 60th birthday party thrown by his fellow “Strike Force Five” podcast hosts because he didn’t want to wait around for the reservation.

Seth Meyers — who cohosted the “Strike Force Five” podcast during the 2023 writers’ strike with Colbert and fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver – explained on “The Late Show” that Colbert’s wife is owed credit for getting her husband to the restaurant. “The Late Show” host woke up that morning not interested in going at all.

“I actually woke up that morning and said, ‘I’m so tired, let’s just not go to dinner,’” Colbert said. “She panicked and goes, ‘I really want a romantic dinner with you.’ Like there were tears. She was in a deep panic.”

“It’s really unfair what we asked of her,” Meyers admitted.

The problem: Colbert’s guest that night, Steve Carrell, had to leave the shoot early, which meant the late-night host was done for the day at 6:15 and the surprise dinner party didn’t start until 8:30. Colbert’s wife Evie began making excuses for why they couldn’t just go somewhere else.

“I believe she said, ‘I really want to try their cacio y pepe,’” Meyers recalled. “For being the non-improviser in your couple, crushed it.”

Colbert revealed that when they finally got to the restaurant and saw they were going to a big private room in the back, he thought things were going to get “spicy.” That was until he saw Fallon laughing at something Kimmel said through a door.

“Let me just say, your face is the dream for when you have a surprise party for someone,” Meyers said. “It’s 50/50. You walked in and saw us and it was really great. And then you told us right away, ‘I didn’t want to come to this dinner at all.’”