Protesters interrupt Stephen Colbert's interview with Uber CEO during Late Show taping

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night and, not only was he slightly upstaged by Colbert's other guest, Vice President Joe Biden, but his own interview was interrupted at least twice by protesters in the audience. According to reports from those who attended the taping that afternoon, two cab drivers shouted at Kalanick, accusing Uber of permanently harming the taxi industry.

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Colbert listened as the heckler yelled his questions at Kalanick, before informing the heckler that he would be asking a similar question. (Those protesters have a point: Uber cars now outnumber cabs in New York City.)

"What is your response to, 'Uber kills professional, good paying jobs and it's unfair to the drivers and it's destroying the cab industry?" Colbert asked, in one breathless sentence. Kalanick responded:

"In the Uber world, you can use your own car. You don't pay $40,000 to rent a vehicle. You make more dollars per hour and it's flexible. You don't have a shift. You can turn on your work when you want to and you can turn it off."

This is when the second man reportedly interrupted the interview, accusing Kalanick of lying. Colbert again politely listened to the audience member and stopped Kalanick from addressing him. The protesters' interruptions and all references to them were edited from the final broadcast.

Kalanick spent the rest of the interview talking about his own experiences as an Uber driver ("Do you really need the cash?" Colbert joked) and what contributes to surge pricing before giving a detailed description of UberEATS. Apparently there weren't any pizza delivery guys on the premises to protest that particular innovation.