In what may be the last hurrah for New York’s nearly century-old Ed Sullivan Theater, the final episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” didn’t feature the most uproarious jokes. Or the most biting political takedowns. Or a tearful, thank-you-filled farewell speech from its host, per the norm when late-night talk shows conclude.
But Stephen Colbert (Communication ’86) did welcome an array of high-profile guest stars in his program’s final weeks: former President Barack Obama, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his late-night peers, including “Late Show” predecessor David Letterman and former “Daily Show” partner-in-crime Jon Stewart. Who would be his surprise final guest?
The parade of forced celebrity cameos during his last monologue gave way to an inspired pick: Paul McCartney, who captivated America alongside his fellow Beatles during their first stateside performance in 1964, a generationally defining appearance on none other than “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Colbert never named President Donald Trump during his finale, even though his regular roasts of the commander in chief drove his show to the top of his time slot’s ratings and earned him the repeated ire of the man he once called “Super Callous Fragile Racist Sexist Nazi POTUS.” The host also didn’t touch on the outcry surrounding his show’s cancellation, which CBS called “purely a financial decision” and critics said reflected a capitulation to the Trump administration.
But Colbert didn’t need to get political to remind us of his program’s impact. His iteration of “The Late Show” continued a tradition, stretching back to the 1940s, of comedians joking about the news of the day and performers showing off their talents for both the hundreds cheering in front of them and the millions watching at home.
McCartney’s appearance on the final episode reminded us that the end of Colbert’s “Late Show” — and, by extension, “The Late Show” as a whole — closed a chapter of television history.
Besides, Colbert has already made most of his flashy political statements. He told Trump to “go f–k yourself” after the president gloated about his program’s cancellation. He interviewed journalists David Remnick and Jake Tapper about free speech after the temporary suspension of another late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” He blasted CBS for pulling an interview with state Rep. James Talarico (D-Texas) off the air after the Federal Communications Commission chair threatened to enforce equal-time rules for programs like “The Late Show.”
Broadcast television isn’t the beast it once was: About 73 million Americans glued themselves in front of their screens for The Beatles’ “Ed Sullivan” debut more than half a century ago, but less than a tenth of that watched the final “Late Show” on Thursday night.
In today’s fragmented media landscape, “top-rated late-night host” makes Colbert the biggest fish in a small pond — or, in terms of his beloved “The Lord of the Rings” franchise, the Thain of the Shire.
As advertising revenue declined and conservative comedian Greg Gutfeld attracted a slightly larger audience one-and-a-half hours earlier on Fox News, “The Late Show” sometimes risked reducing itself to a stable but stodgy presence — at least when the president wasn’t scorning comedians like Colbert and injecting a newfound urgency into their shows.
Even then, “The Late Show” rarely approached the zaniness of its host’s previous program, the satirical “The Colbert Report.” In that show’s December 2014 finale, Colbert’s character, a fictional Fox News-style pundit, became immortal and jetted off on Santa’s sleigh with Abraham Lincoln and “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek.
None of those figures appeared on Thursday’s finale, where the real-life Colbert faced a green CGI wormhole and feigned surprise as his late-night colleagues joined him for one last conversation. The humor was a little broader, the jokes a little stupider. But, standing in front of the wormhole, Stewart reminded his decades-long friend, “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.”
Classic Colbert.
In the final moments of the show, the host and his band joined McCartney, Elvis Costello and former bandleader Jon Batiste to sing one of The Beatles’ signature songs, “Hello, Goodbye,” as Colbert’s family and friends filed onstage.
One of Colbert’s Northwestern theatre professors told me about his grace, sensitivity and humility in the face of crises. When the host transformed his swan song at the Ed Sullivan Theater into a celebration of not just a person but a program, a franchise and a tradition, I felt all three of these traits on full display.
Bluesky: @edwardsimoncruz.bsky.social
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