'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' First Guest Announced Ahead Of Sept. 8 Premiere

After stopping by Comedy Central's “The Daily Show” to give Jon Stewart a remarkably nerdy send-off, Stephen Colbert is officially back. Now, as America prepares for his first night as host CBS's “The Late Show," on which he's replacing David Letterman, his first guest has been confirmed.

Colbert hasn’t hosted his own TV show since Dec. 18, the final airing of Comedy Central's “The Colbert Report.” Since then, the 51-year-old funnyman has been preparing for his Sept. 8 debut on "The Late Show." While fans eagerly await his return, Colbert recently took to Twitter to tease a bit about the upcoming premiere.

That’s right, he wrote that the first guest on the new “Late Show” couch will be “Tomorrowland” star George Clooney. As Cinemablend notes, Clooney has no new movie or project coming out in the fall, so it seems that Colbert is banking on the 54-year-old actor to add a bit of star power to jump-start his run on CBS late-night.

Though Colbert has mostly been on hiatus this year, he’s been popping up with stunts like the latest tweet, an interview with rapper Eminem on Michigan television, and a few promotional skits for the upcoming show. Most recently, he appeared on Stewart’s farewell episode of “The Daily Show” to do one last bit that involved some deep “Lord of the Rings” references. When the jokes were over, Colbert got serious and paid a very respectful tribute to his friend and mentor.

“You said to me and to many other people here years ago never to say ‘thank you’ because we owe you nothing. It is one of the few times I’ve known you to be dead wrong,” Colbert told Stewart. “We owe you because we learned from you, we learned from you by example how to do a show with intention, how to work with clarity and how to treat people with respect. You are infuriatingly good at your job.”

You can tune in to Colbert’s first night as host of “The Late Show,” with guest George Clooney, at 11:35 p.m. EDT Sept. 8 on CBS. Until then, you can watch his heartfelt farewell to Stewart below.