Stephen Colbert used part of Thursday night’s Late Show to say goodbye to his longtime director, Jim Hoskinson, who is retiring after two decades of working with Colbert.

Hoskinson has been a key figure behind Colbert’s television career, having directed 1,446 episodes of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central and more than 1,600 episodes of The Late Show at CBS. Prior to joining forces with Colbert, he worked for Inside Edition during Bill O’Reilly’s tenure as anchor, and later spent six years directing at Fox News. That experience made him a natural fit for The Colbert Report, which was satirically modeled on cable news pundits like O’Reilly.

Over the course of his career, Hoskinson has been nominated for twenty Emmy Awards and one Directors Guild of America Award. Fittingly, he won his first Emmy—and the first ever for The Late Show—for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series earlier this week at the Creative Arts Emmys.

Introducing Hoskinson to his audience Thursday night, Colbert said, “We worked together for 20 years. And I'll certainly always think of you as my director.” He also shared with viewers Hoskinson’s connection to one of television’s most infamous on-air meltdowns: Bill O’Reilly’s “We’ll do it live!” moment, which Hoskinson directed while at Inside Edition.

Reflecting on their two decades together, Colbert praised Hoskinson’s steady hand during the show’s most pressure-filled moments: “I wanted to thank you for putting [the show] together not only with your confidence but with your leadership, your calmness under pressure, your willingness to try very difficult things at the very last minute… I never wondered for a moment it wouldn’t be right when I got on stage.”

Hoskinson credited the entire staff for their teamwork, saying, “What I like best about it is I can’t do anything literally without them… Everybody else has to do their job before I can do my job… It really makes us feel good that we work so well together as a team.”

As for what’s next, Hoskinson revealed he’s planning to buy an RV and travel. Colbert joked, “So you’re going to solve crimes, it sounds like?” Hoskinson laughed, “That’s not a bad idea.”

Hoskinson’s longtime associate director Yvonne DeMare, who has been with him for much of the past 20 years, will succeed him as The Late Show’s new director. Colbert told her on air, “I’m so glad you are taking over. I have one question. Are you going to be okay if I occasionally forget and call you Jim?” DeMare quipped back, “I insist.”

Colbert closed the tribute simply: “Jim, thank you for being a consummate professional. Thank you for being a lot of things. We’ll miss you, Jim.”

Watch Colbert’s full tribute to Hoskinson at the top of this post.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Emmy nominations Hoskinson has received. He has been nominated 20 times.