Stephen Colbert’s canceled Late Show delivered an extraordinary act of defiance Saturday night, pulling off two major Emmy upsets and collecting a string of additional awards just months before CBS plans to shut it down.

The show’s writing team won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, defeating Jimmy Kimmel Live! and ending a remarkable decade-long winning streak for John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.

Then came another surprise.

Colbert Before Air, the program’s modest digital companion series, won Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series—even though it released only around 10 episodes over the past year, each lasting approximately two to four minutes.

The victories created an unmistakable sense of poetic justice for a program that has spent years attacking President Donald Trump and is now approaching its controversial final broadcast.

CBS may have canceled The Late Show, but the Television Academy delivered a very different verdict.

Colbert’s Team Ends a 10-Year Winning Streak

The writing victory was especially remarkable because Last Week Tonight With John Oliver had dominated the category for the previous 10 consecutive years.

Colbert’s team finally broke that streak, triumphing over two of late night’s most established competitors.

Executive producer Tom Purcell used his acceptance speech to honor the hosts expected to continue after The Late Show disappears.

“I’d like to thank all those who keep late night going, [John] Oliver, [Jimmy] Kimmel,” Purcell said. “Super important institution in this country.”

He then offered a striking farewell message: “Keep the flame burning, guys!”

The words carried unusual weight.

Late-night television has become one of the most visible battlegrounds in America’s political and cultural divide, with Colbert, Kimmel and Oliver frequently using comedy to criticize Trump and his administration.

Colbert’s departure will remove one of the president’s most persistent television opponents from the airwaves.

The Smallest Show Delivered the Biggest Surprise

The victory for Colbert Before Air may have been even less expected.

The short-form digital series offers viewers brief glimpses of Colbert interacting with guests and audiences before regular tapings. It lacks the scale, episode count and promotional force of many traditional television contenders.

Yet it defeated several more established productions to claim the Emmy.

One episode featured Billy Crystal revisiting memories connected to the Ed Sullivan Theater, the historic venue from which Colbert broadcasts.

The win demonstrated that even the smallest extension of the canceled show retained enough creative strength to impress Emmy voters.

And the awards did not stop there.

The Late Show also earned Emmys for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming in a segment category, and Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series.

By the end of the ceremony, a program CBS had deemed too costly to continue was carrying away some of television’s most prestigious honors.

The Biggest Battle Is Still Ahead

Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmy ceremony was only the beginning.

The wins gave Colbert’s final season enormous momentum heading into the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 14.

There, The Late Show will compete for Outstanding Talk Series against The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Kimmel Live!

A victory in that category would deliver the most dramatic possible conclusion to the dispute surrounding Colbert’s cancellation.

It would mean television’s leading awards institution had named The Late Show the year’s outstanding talk program shortly before CBS removed it from the schedule.

The Creative Arts ceremonies are being held across two nights, with the first focusing largely on variety, reality and nonfiction programming. Highlights from both events will be combined into a televised special airing Sept. 12 on FXX.

The main ceremony will follow two days later on NBC and Peacock.

CBS Says It Was About Money

CBS announced less than four months ago that The Late Show would conclude in May, describing the decision as financial rather than political.

The network said the franchise had become too expensive and insisted the cancellation was unrelated to Colbert’s content or performance.

But the timing immediately triggered accusations of political censorship.

The announcement came amid controversy over Paramount’s settlement with Trump and while Skydance was pursuing its acquisition of Paramount.

Colbert had publicly condemned the settlement shortly before CBS announced his show would end. The comedian called it a “big fat bribe,” intensifying speculation that his criticism had angered powerful figures involved in the company’s future.

No definitive evidence has established that Trump or Colbert’s political commentary directly caused the cancellation.

Still, the circumstances ensured that the decision would never be seen as an ordinary programming change.

Trump Celebrated the Cancellation

Trump openly celebrated when CBS announced that Colbert’s show was ending.

The president has long despised the comedian’s relentless monologues, which regularly portray him as dishonest, authoritarian, incompetent or absurd.

Colbert, meanwhile, has shown no intention of becoming quieter during his final season.

The show has continued attacking the administration, discussing the controversy surrounding its own cancellation and welcoming major political and cultural figures—including former President Barack Obama.

Now its Emmy victories have transformed the final months into something resembling a victory lap.

The awards cannot reverse CBS’s decision. They cannot guarantee that the program will survive somewhere else, and they do not resolve the questions surrounding its cancellation.

But on Saturday night, Colbert’s team achieved something far more satisfying than a ratings boast or viral monologue.

It defeated the strongest shows in late night, ended a 10-year Emmy streak and forced the television industry to applaud a program already sentenced to disappear.

CBS pulled the plug—but The Late Show is refusing to leave quietly.