After 11 years and some 1,800 episodes, CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ended with a song.
A very symbolic song: Paul McCartney appeared as the show’s last guest and closed out Thursday’s finale at the Ed Sullivan Theater as he sang “Hello, Goodbye” by the Beatles. He was accompanied by Colbert’s house band, Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine; Colbert’s former bandleader, Jon Batiste; one of Colbert’s favorite musicians, Elvis Costello; and Colbert himself.
Colbert said hello to his new chapter as he bid goodbye to “The Late Show,” which he has hosted since September 2015 when he replaced David Letterman, who started the show in 1993. Although it had a bit of a rough start ratings-wise, the former Comedy Central star found his groove after the 2016 presidential election, where he went all in on politics and the state of the world and never looked back.
In his final episode, Colbert lightly alluded to current events — the word “Trump” was not mentioned. Still, the circumstances surrounding “The Late Show” cancellation hung in the air; the topic has lingered since last summer, when CBS announced the network was ending the legendary late-night franchise. The network emphasized that the decision was just about finances, though many noted that CBS was removing one of President Donald Trump’s biggest critics just as parent company Paramount was seeking federal approval on an $8 billion merger with Skydance.
Despite the fact that he couldn’t resist taking a few digs at his network, Colbert wanted to make his last time on late-night as goofy and joyous as possible. But he started the broadcast with an earnest speech where he talked about how hard that he and his crew worked to make the show (and how much fun they had), and it never would have happened without the supportive audience.
“We were here to feel the news with you. And I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it,” Colbert said, and added, “The energy that you have given us — we sincerely need that to have done the best possible show we could have for you.”
Here’s what happened during the hour-plus episode, which CBS extended until nearly 1 a.m.
Celebrity guests
Colbert said they wanted to have a close-to-normal episode … clearly, that would be impossible. The first batch of cameos included Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows and Ryan Reynolds, all of whom pretended that they were under the impression that they would be the final guest. (Meadows faux-stormed off in a rage when he learned that Colbert had no intention of inviting his old Second City pal to the stage to talk about the good old days.) Tig Notaro showed up too, but she clarified that she didn’t care about being a guest — she just likes being present for historic events.
The jokes
Colbert had a few topical headlines he wanted to cover, including the controversy over a sexy priest calendar in Rome, as well as a Page Six report about a man who makes his own sushi from the Hudson River. The host also mentioned how the world’s largest Dr Pepper bottle was recently unveiled at the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas. (“You know their slogan: ‘Please say we’re famous for the soda!’”)
The Pope fake-out
Leading up to Thursday, some fans wondered … would Colbert, a famously devout Catholic, land a coveted interview with Pope Leo XIV?! At first, it looked like that might be the case. But as Colbert invited the pope to the stage, it turned into a bit about how the pope refused to come out of his dressing room because he was furious over the quality of the Chicago-style hot dogs the show provided as snacks. Oh well! “The pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has canceled,” Colbert informed the crowd.
The cancellation gags
Obviously Colbert wasn’t going to leave without addressing the executives who pulled him off the air. He noted that the National Marine Mammal Foundation in his home state of South Carolina has been trying to lure him to work there and published an open letter about how their dolphins are “are cautiously optimistic” about the host’s availability these days. “The dolphins know I got canceled?!” Colbert groaned, and producers cut to a scene of a dolphin who, according to the captions, was saying, “It was purely a financial decision!”
In addition, Colbert brought up a news story about how the owner of the “Peanuts” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” music filed several lawsuits over people playing the songs without permission. Cue the band playing the “Peanuts” theme. “Oh no … I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!” Colbert said.
Okay, and he did get in a reference to Trump. During Paul McCartney’s interview, the singer talked about what it was like being part of the Beatles’ culture-shifting performance when they played at the Ed Sullivan Theater in February 1964. McCartney said he and the band members were a bit startled when “The Ed Sullivan Show” stylists started to put bright orange makeup on them, and Colbert couldn’t pass that up: “That’s very popular in certain circles these days,” he said, to big laughs from the audience.
Trump posted a jab of his own back on Truth Social overnight, saying it was “amazing” that Colbert had lasted so long in the role. “No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk,” he wrote.
A visit from his late-night fraternity
A meaningful episode of “The Late Show” wouldn’t be complete without Colbert’s longtime pal Jon Stewart. In a pretaped skit, Colbert encountered an interdimensional wormhole backstage; astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson popped by the explain that two contradictory realities — a No. 1 show on late-night getting canceled — had ruptured the space-time continuum. (“They canceled ‘Gutfeld!’??” Colbert deadpanned, referring to the Fox series that airs in the 10 p.m. hour and has more total viewers than the later shows.)
As Colbert stared into the wormhole, Stewart stopped by to tell his friend not to be scared. “The hole’s here, you can’t ignore it. The only choice you have now is how you choose to walk through it,” Stewart said. “You can go in kicking and screaming. Or, you can do what you’ve done the past 30 years when faced with something dark. You stare it down, and you can laugh.” Then the two did their classic spit-takes.
Colbert’s other fellow hosts — Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and a quick appearance from Andy Cohen — showed up to give him some encouragement. Eventually, the wormhole opened up and destroyed the entire studio and condensed it all into a snow globe.
The music
Before “Hello, Goodbye,” Colbert joined in for another sing-along: A cover of “Jump Up,” a Costello demo that wasn’t even originally recorded for an album, but Colbert has named one of his all-time favorite songs. As he told NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2012, he connected to the lyrics, which ask big questions about life.
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