'Colbert Report' Suspended Due to Family Illness, Source Explains Silence

Fans of Stephen Colbert are tweeting their good wishes to The Colbert Report host, after multiple news outlets have reported that Colbert suspended the Comedy Central show to attend to his ailing mother Lorna Colbert, who is said to be seriously ill.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a source familiar with The Colbert Report claimed the suspension was due to a Colbert family emergency. Not long afterwards, the Huffington Post reported that a source who has a business relationship with [The Colbert Report] told them Colbert's 91-year-old mother, Lorna Colbert, is not doing well.

On Wednesday, The Colbert Report made a late-breaking announcement -- after some had already been seated for the taping -- that the Comedy Central show would be suspending production for the remainder of the week.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the show will air repeat episodes on Wednesday, February 15 and Thursday, February 16, network spokesman Steve Albani said in an e-mailed statement. The Colbert Report does not normally tape on Fridays.

An unnamed source told the New York Post that Colbert's silence on the supposed family emergency is par for the course.

They are a very private family, the source said. It's not surprising that he did not want anyone to know what was going on.

According to the Post report, a spokesperson for Colbert gave no details on the cause of the show's suspension.

The Post report indicates that Colbert may have been visting his mother last week: The Colbert Report host reportedly told the studio audience on Monday that he had spent the previous week in Charleston, SC., where his mother lives and where Colbert was raised.

Colbert has rarely spoken of the 1974 tragedy that claimed his father's life, along with two of his brothers. (Colbert is one of 11 children born to James and Lorna Colbert). When it came up in a 2005 interview for the New York Times Magazine, Colbert said, I don't generally talk about it.

He discussed the tragedy again in a 2009 interview for CBS News. When reporter Daniel Schorn suggested that comedians sometimes turn to humor to cope with painful experiences, Colbert didn't argue.

I think I did my best to cheer my mom up, he said.