Did Stephen Colbert sign a $13.5 million deal with Netflix for a 7-episode series about his journey through American TV history as of September 1, 2025? No, that's not true: Although Colbert joked in August that Netflix should call him, there is no evidence Colbert signed a Netflix deal. The only source making the claim is a website that publishes hundreds of fake stories each day promoted by Facebook pages administered from Vietnam. An AI text detector concluded that 93 percent of the story was written by artificial intelligence.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared by the "Humor Perspective" Facebook page on August 29, 2025. The caption opened:
BREAKING! Television legend Stephen Colbert has just signed a $13.5 million deal with Netflix for a 7-episode series chronicling his extraordinary journey through decades of American television history.
This isn't just a behind-the-scenes documentary -- it's a series of political stories wrapped in the form of a film, highlighting Colbert's resilience, his battles both on stage and in life, and his place as one of the most inspiring figures in American television.
What's even more astonishing? Stephen Colbert has pledged to donate a significant portion of this deal to music education and youth programs -- a gesture that has left fans around the world deeply moved.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Sep 1 16:14:20 2025 UTC)
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Sep 1 16:14:20 2025 UTC)
The caption continued:
This isn't just a behind-the-scenes documentary -- it's a series of political stories wrapped in the form of a film, highlighting Colbert's resilience, his battles both on stage and in life, and his place as one of the most inspiring figures in American television.
What's even more astonishing? Stephen Colbert has pledged to donate a significant portion of this deal to music education and youth programs -- a gesture that has left fans around the world deeply moved.
De.tails i.n co.mm.ent 👇👇
The top of the post's comments included a link to an online article (archived here) titled "$13.5 Million Bombshell: Stephen Colbert Strikes Netflix Mega-Deal for Explosive 7-Part Series -- Behind-the-Scenes Battles, Political Secrets, and the Stunning Pledge That's Leaving America in Tears."
(Source: screenshot of https://newlifes.drinkfood.info by Lead Stories)
A Google search (archived here) for "Colbert Netflix" found no other reports of this claim, beyond social media posts promoting this article. None of the top entertainment industry news websites, including Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, reported such a deal as of September 1, 2025. A spokesperson for Netflix did not immediately reply to Lead Stories' inquiry about the report. We will update this fact check if they do respond.
Lead Stories submitted the full text of the article to the JustDone AI text detector, which uses four systems to look for signs that writing was done by artificial intelligence. It concluded that 93 percent of the story was AI-generated.
(Source: screenshot of JustDone.com by Lead Stories)
The conclusion that AI was used is not a surprise considering that this website newlifes.drinkfood.info (archived here) publishes another fake article about every two minutes, which adds up to hundreds everyday starting in July 2025.
(Source: screenshot of https://newlifes.drinkfood.info by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories finds a growing number of Facebook pages administered from Vietnam that are using AI to mass produce false stories targeted at an American audience. The "Humor Perspective" Facebook page is managed from Vietnam, according to the Meta transparency data (archived here.)
(Source: screenshot of Facebook by Lead Stories)
Many of the fake AI-made claims go viral on social platforms because there may be a seed of truth in them. As Deadline reported (archived here) on August 8, 2025, Colbert made a joke about interest in a Netflix deal once "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on CBS goes off the air in May, 2025.
