Ernie Johnson Broke Out His Shaq Impression On ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’

Ernie Johnson finished anchoring Turner’s NCAA tournament coverage, and he stopped by The Late Show to talk hoops with Stephen Colbert.

Johnson appeared on Colbert to pitch his book — Unscripted — and talk about the finish of the NCAA tournament as well as his Inside the NBA crew.

Johnson joined Colbert in New York a day after North Carolina won it all in Phoenix, pointing out that he picked UNC to win the title after Oregon star Chris Boucher tore an ACL before the tournament. Ernie admitted that while prepping for the NCAA tournament can be exhausting, it is as much fun as you’d imagine it to be.

“If you had a boss who told you the first two days of the tournament, ‘All I want you to do is watch March Madness,’ you’d probably sign up for that,” Johnson said. “So we get to do that and it’s awesome.”

Colbert asked the broadcaster how he handled the “pretty powerful personalities” on the Inside the NBA crew that includes Charles Barkley Kenny Smith and Shaq. The Late Night host asked if he felt like a camp counselor, which Ernie said was pretty accurate.

It’s been camp counselor, it’s been point guard, it’s been traffic cop—and I think that’s a real insult to traffic cops. Especially in this city, if a traffic cop is trying to make sure nothing happens in the intersection, everybody gets through. I’m like the rogue traffic cop: I waive Kenny into the intersection knowing full well that Shaq will t-bone him.

Johnson called Shaq “the world’s biggest kid,” and said he’s “all about YouTube,” which let him tell a story where he used a pretty solid Shaq impression.

It’s 15 seconds before we go on halftime and he’s got some kind of music playing in front of him and he’s got his phone out and he’s singing something and he goes ‘Ernie. Sing this verse with me it’ll get like two billion YouTube hits.’ And I’m like, I don’t care if it gets two billion YouTube’ —’Brother (Shaq voice) It’ll get like 10 million YouTube hits.’ And so I try to play along with him.

Johnson got emotional talking about his book’s title in reference to his adopted children. Johnson said his family has embraced whatever life has thrown their way, including one adopted son, Michael, being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

It’s a really nice segment if you don’t know much about Johnson beyond his wrangling of Shaq on cable television. Johnson and Colbert have good rapport, and if you hung around after the interview you got to see Father John Misty play a tune. Not a bad night of television if you ask me.