There were tears, love and lots of laughs as the “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” aired its final episode Thursday night, marking an emotional end of the franchise’s 33-year-run.
CBS announced its controversial decision to cancel “The Late Show” in July, more than three decades after its launch with David Letterman as host. The network blamed “financial” reasons, despite the show being the highest-rated on broadcast television. It came after after parent company Paramount’s $16 million settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview as Paramount awaited his administration’s approval of a pending sale to Skydance Media.
Some nine months later, Colbert, who took over the “Late Show” in 2015, said his final farewell from the stage. Here are some of the “Late Show” finale’s biggest moments:
The Last Thank You
To kick things off, Colbert appeared ahead of the “Late Show” theme song and directly addressed fans and reflected on his 11-year tenure as host of the long-running CBS show.
“Hi folks,” he began.
“We have done over 1,800 of these shows, and most nights I come out here and I talk to the audience beforehand, and tonight, I thought I’d talk to the audience in here and the audience out there at home,” Colbert continued. “This show, I want you to know, has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show the ‘joy machine,’ all right?”
The 62-year-old funnyman added that his job was never just about reading the news to fans, but rather “to feel the news with” them.
“We love doing this show for you, but we really, really love is doing the show with you,” Colbert said before thanking fans, and then cuing the “Late Night” theme.
The Last Monologue
Colbert explained that, while he did consider having a “huge special” finale, he and his team realized that “every episode is special.”
He told the audience: “We thought the best way to celebrate what we’ve done over the last 11 years is just do a regular episode where I come out here and talk about the national conversation.”
Colbert went on to quip about the hantavirus and a sinkhole shutting down a runway at LaGuardia Airport before he was interrupted by Bryan Cranston, who offered from his seat in the audience to be the show’s final guest.
“The thing is, we already have a pretty special one lined up,” the 10-time Emmy winner told him.
Other famous faces in the crowd included Tim Meadows and Paul Rudd, each of whom similarly angled to appear on the finale episode.
“I have an extremely long poem I want to recite, and I don’t want to run out of time,” Rudd said.
Colbert, known for his biting humor about politics, kept things mostly light throughout the night. He did not once mention President Trump, not in his monologue, nor throughout the rest of the program.
The Last Guest
While the Pope couldn’t make it for Colbert’s final show, the host still got by with a little help from a friend.
Colbert previously said Pope Leo XIV was his “white whale” of a guest, but he jokingly revealed on Thursday that the pontiff was refusing to come out for the finale because “we got him the wrong snacks.” Instead, he was joined by Sir Paul McCartney.
“Hey, Stephen, what about me?” the Beatle said as he took the stage.
He added: “It’s always fantastic to come back here.”
McCartney then reminisced about his past appearances at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater, where the Beatles made their American debut in 1964 and where the Late Show franchise was taped for most of its run.
The Last Bit
Colbert was eventually forced to step away to address “technical difficulties” and glitches, making his way backstage, where he was met by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and a giant green wormhole.
“Two contradictory realities cannot co-exist without rupturing the space-time continuum,” he told Colbert. “For instance, if a show is No. 1 in late night but also gets canceled. … Your cancellation created a rift in the comedy-variety talk continuum, and if it grows all of late night television could be destroyed.”
He was then joined by fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, who all offered their support.
“Without you, where will Americans turn to see a middle-aged white man make jokes about the news?” Myers joked.
Kimmel referenced his own brief time off the air, prompted by a comment about the death of Charlie Kirk. He said the wormhole similarly opened back then, but closed when he returned to air days later.
“We came to say, we’re going to miss you,” Kimmel told him. “Late night is not going to be the same without you.”
Looking directly into the wormhole, Colbert was also offered some advice from his mentor, Jon Stewart.
“The only choice you have is how to walk through it,” Stewart told him. “You can go in kicking and screaming. Or you can do what you’ve done for the past 30 years when faced with something dark: you stare it down and you can laugh.”
Inside the void, Colbert was joined by McCartney as well as Elvis Costello, original bandleader Jon Batiste and Batiste’s replacement, Louis Cato. Together, they performed the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.”
And in the end, Colbert and McCartney switched off the lights at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater together.
