After 11 seasons, countless episodes and more than a decade behind the desk of one of late-night’s most legendary franchises, how do you even begin to say goodbye? For Stephen Colbert, the answer was simple. He started his final night on “The Late Show” as he always has: with a monologue.
At least, that was the plan.
Before the show could properly get underway, Colbert found himself repeatedly interrupted by celebrities in the live studio audience, each apparently convinced they’d been booked as his last guest.
First up was Bryan Cranston, who stood up from his seat to jokingly ask whether there might be “a surprise celebrity cameo popping up out of nowhere” during the finale.
Later, Paul Rudd shouted from the crowd to ask when his interview with Colbert was supposed to begin. “I have an extremely long poem I want to recite, and I don’t want to run out of time,” the actor deadpanned.
Nearby, Tim Meadows interrupted to argue that he made more sense as Colbert’s final guest, reminding him of their shared history at Second City.
“It’s not you either, Tim,” the late-night host quipped.
Nor was it Ryan Reynolds or comedian Tig Notaro, both of whom also popped up during the episode for their own comedic interruptions.
While Colbert never quite landed his white whale farewell guest — Pope Leo XIV, whom he joked canceled his appearance over bad hot dogs put in his dressing room — the beloved host still managed to turn his bittersweet sendoff into a star-studded celebration.
As for the real final guest? Colbert skipped the pope and went straight for rock royalty: Paul McCartney.
At the start of their interview, the Beatles singer presented Colbert with a framed color photo of his band performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964, which was filmed at the very same theater as “The Late Show.”
Later, after Colbert bid viewers good night for the last time, McCartney returned to help close the show with The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye,” an on-the-nose but fitting finale for an unforgettable era of late-night television.
The “Late Show” finale also featured appearances from Jon Stewart, Andy Cohen, Elijah Wood, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Elvis Costello and former musical director Jon Baptiste. Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers stopped by as well to celebrate their fellow late-night host as he said goodbye — or “see you later,” as Colbert put it.
Colbert had been preparing for his late-night farewell ever since CBS announced in July that it was canceling “The Late Show,” ending both his 11-year tenure and the top-rated franchise’s 33-year run.
The network claimed the move was “purely a financial decision,” though the announcement came around the same time its parent company, Paramount Global, settled a controversial $16 million lawsuit with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris — which Colbert openly criticized just days before CBS gave his show the boot.
At that time, Paramount was also in the midst of finalizing a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance, which required approval from the Trump administration.
The timing of the events only further fueled speculation, especially within the entertainment industry, that the network was all too eager to appease Trump and the administration — and folks haven’t stopped reminding it of that.
CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
In the months that followed, the host continued slipping pointed jokes about his employer into his show, including during the series finale — which featured a running bit about a mysterious interdimensional wormhole backstage at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
“You see, the fabric of the universe is underpinned by an immutable set of physical laws. Two contradictory realities cannot coexist without rupturing the space-time continuum,” astrophysicist Tyson explained to Colbert. “For instance, if a show is No. 1 on late night and it also gets canceled.”
He added: “Your cancellation has created a rift in the comedy-variety talk continuum. And if it grows, all of late-night television could be destroyed.”
While Colbert has been candid about his ousting from late-night, he still made his exit with grace and humor on Thursday. In the final moments of “The Late Show,” he and guest McCartney turned off all the studio lights in the building as the wormhole shrank it down to a snow globe.
But this isn’t the last we’ll see of Colbert.
His post-“Late Show” chapter includes co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings” film with his son and potentially some other projects now that late-night is over.
Moving forward, his show’s slot will be taken over by Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed,” airing two half-hour episodes Monday through Friday at 11:35 p.m. ET.
Editor’s note: In May, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced that Allen Family Digital, led by Byron Allen, is acquiring a majority stake in BuzzFeed, HuffPost’s parent company.
