Stephen Colbert said goodbye to “The Late Show” in a final episode Thursday night on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT—built like “business as usual,” then transformed into a stage-and-screen sendoff featuring Paul McCartney, appearances from
Thursday night, Stephen Colbert walked out knowing it was the end—not of a routine, but of an era.
In “The Late Show” series finale, broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+ at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT, Colbert kept the tone almost impossibly light right up until it wasn’t. Before delivering his monologue. he spoke to viewers and to the audience inside the Ed Sullivan Theater. telling everyone that after more than 1. 800 shows. he’d learned how to keep the “joy machine” running without letting the weight of it hurt.
“Folks. we have done over 1. 800 of these shows and most nights I come out here I talk to the audience beforehand. and tonight I thought I’d talk to the audience in here and out there at home. ” Colbert said. “This show has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact. we call this show the joy machine because to do this many shows. it has to be a machine. But the thing is. if you choose to do it with joy it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.”.
He then thanked everyone who worked on “The Late Show” and the viewers, crediting the energy he receives nightly for helping the show deliver the best version of itself.
After a montage of clips featuring iconic late night hosts over the years. Colbert returned to the stage for what became a final standing ovation. He was joined by his band Louis Cato and “The Great Big Joy Machine.” When fans yelled “boo” at the idea that it was his final broadcast. Colbert interrupted them: “No. no. We were lucky enough to be here for the last 11 years … can’t take this for granted. ” prompting claps all over again.
Instead of treating the finale as a special shutdown. Colbert said he and his staff chose to plan it the way they always did. It began with jokes that leaned into the routine—sinkholes across New York City. and updates regarding the hantavirus outbreak—until celebrities and friends of Colbert’s Bryan Cranston. Paul Rudd. and Tim Meadows interrupted his monologue to plead for a final guest spot.
In his monologue, Colbert also joked about what came next, saying, “This show ending has one upside: I won’t have to talk about the inevitable rise of the machine overlords.” He added, “A lot of people have been asking me what I plan to do after tonight, and the answer is drugs.”
That playful confidence landed harder because the cancellation story behind it has been anything but simple. CBS and parent company Paramount have maintained that the end of “The Late Show” was purely financial since the news was announced last July. The decision arrived not long after Colbert criticized the company on air for paying a $16 million settlement to President Trump over a 60 Minutes interview. calling it a “big fat bribe.”.
Trump, for his part, celebrated the outcome publicly. Writing on Truth Social, he said he “absolutely loved” that the late night host was fired. Trump has also pushed for other late-night cancellations, including encouraging ABC to cancel “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
With no successor stepping in immediately, “The Late Show’s” timeslot was bought by billionaire Byron Allen, who plans to air his comedy talk show “Comics Unleashed” starting Friday.
Still, the finale itself refused to become only a eulogy. Colbert’s final week had already felt like a greatest-hits run. including interviews with Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Fallon. Seth Meyers. and John Oliver. Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg joined him on Tuesday. May 19. along with a special performance by Talking Heads singer David Byrne. when Colbert joined along. Bruce Springsteen performed on Wednesday’s penultimate episode.
Thursday night’s sendoff matched that spirit. Colbert leaned into his “Meanwhile” segment with rapid-fire news bits. including when he discussed the owner of the “Peanuts” catalog suing companies and the U.S. government to stop them from using its music without permission; his band began playing music from the soundtrack. and Colbert joked. “Oh no. I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money.”.
Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds also made brief appearances from the audience before Colbert did a bit with one of his producers. The joke involved waiting for Pope Leo XIV to come out of his dressing room.
The pope never showed up for the final interview. Instead, Paul McCartney arrived and surprised everyone by joining Colbert on stage. The moment carried extra weight because The Beatles made their American debut on that same stage on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964.
McCartney gifted Colbert a photograph of The Beatles from that night, then sat down for what became the show’s final interview. He reminisced about being in the Ed Sullivan Theater all those years ago and told Colbert what he thought about America then.
“America’s where all the music we loved came from, all the rock and roll, the blues and the whole thing,” McCartney said. “We thought America was the land of the free, the greatest democracy. That was what it was, and still is hopefully.”
Colbert quipped, “Sure, yeah.”
The conversation also touched McCartney’s “Days We Left Behind,” including the lyric “nothing stays the same, no one needs to cry,” as Colbert said he’d been thinking about change lately. McCartney admitted he’s not good with change, and complained about needing to constantly update his iPhone.
Halfway through the interview, the screen behind Colbert intentionally malfunctioned, flashing static. Colbert went backstage to investigate and viewers got a pre-taped segment: he found a giant green. rotating hole sucking objects into it. Neil deGrasse Tyson explained it was “a textbook case of an Einstein Rosen bridge. also known as an interdimensional wormhole. ” describing how a show that’s number one in late night and then canceled can’t exist in two realities at once—swallowing all of the matter and anti-matter around it.
Colbert pushed Tyson into the wormhole. joking that it swallowed him “before he could explain why we were wrong about something.” Then Jon Stewart appeared. coming on as a kind of pep talk amid the chaos. Stewart encouraged Colbert to walk through the wormhole. telling him. “You can go in kicking and screaming or you can do what you’ve done for the past 30 years when you face something dark. You can stare it down and you can laugh.”.
Back in solidarity, Kimmel, Meyers, Oliver, and Fallon showed up backstage. Kimmel joked, “One of these holes opened up at my show last year, but it went away after three days,” referencing ABC’s three-day suspension of his show after he made a joke about Charlie Kirk.
Elijah Wood also made a quick cameo, drawing attention to Colbert’s love for “The Lord of the Rings” series. After that. an apocalyptic scene unfolded inside the theater: everyone was swallowed. including Colbert. who ended up in a dark. desolate space surrounded by Elvis Costello. Jon Batiste. and Louis Cato. The four of them performed Costello’s “Jump Up,” leaning into the emotion of the ballad.
The camera pulled back to the real stage. Colbert sang “The Late Show” into history alongside McCartney, performing The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.” Staffers and audience joined in onstage as the moment turned celebratory. If tears existed, viewers at home didn’t see them—only joy, love, and dancing.
In a finale that blended jokes aimed at the network and the current administration with an unmistakable sense of gratitude. “The Late Show” still landed as more than entertainment. It was a farewell that carried the weight of late night’s shifting relationship with power—just delivered with Colbert’s signature insistence that even when things look like they’re falling apart. you can still laugh. and still make something that feels human.
Stephen Colbert The Late Show Ed Sullivan Theater CBS Paramount+ series finale Paul McCartney Neil deGrasse Tyson Jon Stewart Louis Cato The Beatles Hello Goodbye Byron Allen Comics Unleashed