In the penultimate episode of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert got grilled by the “Colbert Questionert” during a fast-paced farewell that included teasing from his wife Evie McGee-Colbert and a ripping, nostalgic sendoff from longtime friend Amy Sedaris.
Stephen Colbert didn’t just sit down for his second-to-last episode of “The Late Show” — he got thrown into a familiar kind of trouble.
During the segment “Colbert Questionert,” Colbert was surprised by a stack of recognizable faces, each taking a turn asking him questions pulled from a standardized list of 15. The topics ranged from theories about life after death to something far more grounded: his favorite sandwich.
As Colbert explained at the top. he usually gets to answer wide-ranging prompts from former guests tapped to read them aloud. In this run. those guests included Billy Crystal. Josh Brolin. Weird Al Yankovic. Martha Stewart. Jim Gaffigan. Mark Hamill. Ben Stiller. Tiffany Haddish. Aubrey Plaza. James Taylor. Robert De Niro. and John Dickerson. among others. Tonight, the spotlight — and the pressure — narrowed fast.
The night’s biggest spark came from two women Colbert knows best.
First, his wife, Evie McGee-Colbert, was introduced to the stage as “the ‘Late Show’s’ First Lady.” Colbert immediately leaned into the moment by asking if she ran into Haddish, who had hit on him minutes prior.
“I did!” McGee-Colbert quipped. “I hear we’re all going traveling together.”
Then she asked him, “How you doing? How do you like this?”
“I’m good. Being in this seat is weird for me,” Colbert hesitantly noted. “That’s exactly it, not having control. What do you got?”
From the “Questionert,” McGee-Colbert fired the prompt: “What is your favorite smell, darling?”
“That’s a good one for you. Oh, you’re not gonna like the answer. My favorite smell is when we are going out someplace. and you go upstairs to get ready first. and then I. because you take a little longer … come up to follow you. ” he said. He continued. describing how at the top of the stairs he could tell where she was — “because I can smell that like rose lotion … And then. I know that you’re in there wearing very little.”.
McGee-Colbert erupted into laughter, and Colbert seemed to bristle and smile at the same time, caught in the crossfire of honesty and surprise.
After McGee-Colbert exited the stage, Amy Sedaris stepped out — and the tone shifted from teasing to something more sentimental. Sedaris, who has known Colbert for almost 40 years, told her friend she was both “happy” and “sad” to be there. She then proceeded to “rip up” the question she was given, pretending she planned to go rogue.
But the segment still landed on a question that hit close to home.
Sedaris read from the torn notes: “What is your least favorite smell?”
She launched into a memory from when she was about 10 or 11, recalling her next-door neighbor across the street, the Millers. “Mrs. Miller was really lovely. We used to talk all the time, even when the kids weren’t around, she was just really lovely woman,” Sedaris said.
Then came the detail that stuck with her — and, by extension, stuck with Colbert.
“I remember one day she was cleaning out underneath the sink. I was just sitting like. on the bar stool … and you know how people keep like jars of grease?. It had either broken or the jar lid had come loose, and it had leaked. That grease had poured into a bag of sugar, and the bag of sugar had turned rancid.”.
Sedaris continued with how Mrs. Miller asked the moment into existence, telling her: “Do you want to smell just the worst thing?”
“And I said, ‘Sure,’ and I smelled it, and I can’t possibly describe what it’s like,” she said. “But I remember even as a boy going. wow. I know there’s some bad smells. like we humans make our own bad smelling things. which you can obviously think of. but this was so much worse than anything else I’d ever [smelled]. I didn’t think anything could smell that bad, and so it stuck with me.”.
That sentimental sendoff also came with a musical performance from Bruce Springsteen. The episode arrived just one day before Colbert was set to sign off the air.
The farewell is now officially scheduled. In January, CBS locked in the final air date for “The Late Show,” set for May 21. The decision followed CBS’ announcement last summer that “The Late Show” would be coming to an end shortly after Colbert mocked Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump. blasting the move as a “big fat bribe.” CBS executives said at the time that the cancellation decision was purely a financial one.
The series finale of “The Late Show” airs Thursday at 11:35 PM ET on CBS.
Stephen Colbert The Late Show Colbert Questionert Evie McGee-Colbert Amy Sedaris Billy Crystal Amy Sedaris favorite smell Bruce Springsteen CBS series finale May 21 11:35 PM ET