Comedian Stephen Colbert signed off from his late-night speak present on Thursday after 11 seasons with a sentimental chat with Beatles musician Paul McCartney and pointed jokes about his compelled departure from CBS.
The last installment of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” started with the comedian thanking the in-person and tv viewers for watching his nightly tackle present occasions, typically punctuated by verbal jabs at Republican President Donald Trump.
“We were here to feel the news with you, and I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it,” Colbert mentioned to laughter within the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.
CBS introduced final July that it was cancelling the “Late Show,” citing monetary causes. Late-night tv, an American custom for the reason that Fifties, has been dropping viewership and promoting {dollars} for years.
The choice to finish the top-rated late-night speak present sparked an outcry, nonetheless, from Democrats and different critics who noticed it as a transfer to silence political satire in violation of the First Amendment’s free speech safety.
The present’s cancellation got here as Paramount Global, on the time the proprietor of CBS, was in search of the federal government’s approval for a merger. The deal was accredited, and CBS is now a unit of David Ellison-led Paramount Skydance.
Colbert’s present ranked because the most-watched among the many broadcast networks’ late-night TV speak reveals for the reason that 2017-2018 season, in line with Nielsen knowledge. This season, the “Late Show” averaged 2.1 million viewers.
On Thursday’s finale, Colbert left his desk and walked backstage to discover a glowing inexperienced circle. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a frequent Colbert visitor, joked that it was a wormhole brought on by “two conflicting realities,” which have been “a show that was number one on late night, and it also gets canceled.”
“Your cancellation has created a rift in the comedy-variety-talk continuum,” Tyson mentioned. “If it grows, all of late-night television could be destroyed.”
Fellow speak present hosts Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Jon Stewart then appeared to supply recommendation.
‘HELLO, GOODBYE’
Earlier, Colbert recommended he had secured an interview with Pope Leo as his last visitor. A staffer then mentioned, in jest, that the pontiff had canceled as a result of he didn’t just like the snacks in his dressing room.
At that second, McCartney wandered onto the stage and mentioned he was out there. “I was just in the area. I was doing some errands,” the musician quipped.
McCartney had appeared in the identical theater in 1964, when the Beatles have been launched to Americans on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Colbert requested McCartney what he remembered from that efficiency, what Sullivan was like and the way the Beatles considered the United States on the time.
The singer mentioned he and his younger bandmates, of their early 20s on the time, noticed America as “the land of the free, the greatest democracy.”
“That’s what it was, and hopefully still is,” McCartney mentioned.
The finale ended with McCartney singing the Beatles basic “Hello, Goodbye” with Colbert on background vocals.
When the present concluded, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Colbert had “no talent.”
“You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk,” the president mentioned. “Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”
Before Thursday’s present, followers outdoors the theater lamented the top of not simply Colbert’s run but in addition the “Late Show” as an establishment. Colbert, 62, took over the present from David Letterman in 2015.
“This is the end of an era. The late night show is a staple. David Letterman, Johnny Carson, it’s upsetting,” mentioned fan Mike McGillicuddy.
Another fan, Sarah Thompson, mentioned she was “very sad that Stephen’s leaving.”
“It’s just going to leave a big hole in America because you need to laugh at the end of the day from all the trauma that we’re facing,” she mentioned.
© Thomson Reuters 2026.