Stephen Colbert Thought George R. R. Martin Texted Him the Entire Winds of Winter — Here's What Really Happened
Late-night TV was rocked by a fiasco that lit up the internet — and it sparked a rarity: Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert sharing the screen to address the fallout. As colleagues rallied behind them, Colbert revealed more on The Late Show.
Late-night had a full-on mess recently — the kind that takes over the internet for a day and change — and out of that chaos we got a surprisingly rare on-air chat between Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. The fallout also came with a very Stephen Colbert beat: a wry George R.R. Martin joke that every book-starved Thrones fan immediately clocked.
On The Late Show, Colbert walked through the flood of support he got after the disaster hit both shows, and he shared the kind of name-drop list you do not expect to hear in one breath. He says he even put his phone in exile with his wife, Evie, to avoid doomscrolling until things cooled off. When he finally checked it, he found this:
"I got some fun ones. I gave my phone to Evie as soon as I was canceled. I handed my phone to Evie and I said, 'Don't give this back to me for several days.' When I finally went through it: high school girlfriend, James Taylor, and George R.R. Martin. He sent me The Winds of Winter."
No, George R.R. Martin did not actually text him the manuscript. That was the joke — and a good one, because even the mere mention of Martin’s name is basically Pavlovian at this point: people ask about The Winds of Winter. Colbert knows it. We know it. Martin definitely knows it.
Colbert pokes the dragon (politely)
Colbert and GRRM are not a frequent late-night pairing, but Martin has popped by The Late Show a couple of times — in 2018 and again in 2022 — to talk shop and, yes, the book. On that last visit, Martin said he was roughly three-quarters of the way through The Winds of Winter. Fans took that as real, tangible progress.
Cut to three years later and, well, the finish line is still foggy. Colbert’s line lands because it is both a wink to the crowd and a gentle reminder that the clock has been ticking since that 75% comment.
The new "update" that made the internet twitch
Complicating things, author Jeffe Kennedy recently said The Winds of Winter is reportedly 70% done. That is not an official GRRM update, and it has not been confirmed by Martin. Still, the internet did what it does: spun out. If that number is right, he is basically in the same range he was the last time he talked to Colbert — and some fans joked he even lost 5% along the way.
To be fair, big novels change shape. Rewrites, cuts, and reworks can make the percentage dance. But you get why Colbert’s crack hit: the appetite for this book is endless, and silence only makes people hungrier.
Where the series stands
- A Game of Thrones — 1996
- A Clash of Kings — 1998
- A Storm of Swords — 2000
- A Feast for Crows — 2005
- A Dance with Dragons — 2011
- The Winds of Winter — TBA
- A Dream of Spring — TBA
Bottom line: Colbert tossed out a clean little needle that said what everyone is thinking without being a jerk about it. If it gives Martin a nudge, great. If not, the bit still works because the joke is the wait itself. Thoughts on Colbert’s line — cruel, fair, or exactly the right amount of prod?