Stephen Colbert closed out the late-night program he hosted for nearly 11 years in a celebratory, surreal finale that mixed music, friends and visual spectacle. The show ended at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater — the same stage where The Beatles made their U.S. debut — with Colbert joining Paul McCartney to sing “Hello, Goodbye.” Musicians Elvis Costello, Louis Cato and Jon Batiste joined onstage as Colbert invited his audience and crew to dance; Colbert and McCartney then ceremonially switched off the theater lights.
The broadcast leaned into playful effects: at one point the set and theater appeared to be sucked into a giant, green interdimensional wormhole, a sequence that occasionally resembled a spinning CBS logo. Earlier in the episode, Colbert was joined by fellow late-night hosts John Oliver, Seth Meyers and the two Jimmys — Fallon and Kimmel — who called themselves “Strike Force Five.” “We came to say, we’re going to miss you,” Jimmy Kimmel said; Meyers quipped about where viewers would turn “to see a middle-aged white man make jokes about the news.”
CBS announced last July that it was canceling Colbert’s top-rated show, calling the move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Colbert and his allies have suggested the cancellation was retaliation for his frequent criticism of former President Trump; others tied the decision to corporate maneuvering as Paramount Global sought regulatory approval for its deal with Skydance Media.
The network allowed Colbert months to wrap up, and though he had spent years roasting political figures in his monologues, his final address notably avoided politics. Friends and colleagues used the last shows to pay tribute and protest. Bruce Springsteen told Colbert he believed the host had lost his job “because the president can’t take a joke.” David Letterman, a Late Show predecessor, appeared on one of Colbert’s final programs to express outrage over the cancellation and to remind Colbert that “you can take a man’s show, but you can’t take a man’s voice.”
Letterman and Colbert climbed to the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater for a mock rampage they called “wanton destruction of CBS property,” tossing chairs, a cake and watermelons onto a target painted with the network’s logo. Jon Stewart, Colbert’s friend and mentor from The Daily Show, joined him onstage and offered a send-off framed as defiance: when faced with something dark, Stewart said, “you stare it down and you can laugh.”
Other celebrity visitors during the final nights included Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows and Ryan Reynolds. Jon Batiste and Louis Cato, the show’s current and former band leaders, performed alongside Colbert and McCartney. Colbert also reunited with longtime friends and rivals throughout the week.
Offstage, Colbert has kept his options open. He told People magazine he hadn’t planned much beyond attending his brother’s wedding and that he’s been working on a passion project: co-writing a script for an upcoming Lord of the Rings movie with his son, Peter McGee. He also started a TikTok account in the days after the finale.
CBS said the Late Show set will be donated to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, where Colbert’s career began with The Second City improv troupe. Beginning the day after his final broadcast, CBS will replace The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with reruns of Comics Unleashed, leased to the network by media executive Byron Allen, who has said the program will avoid political comedy.
Colbert’s departure marks the end of his chapter in a franchise that began with Letterman in 1993 and occupied the Ed Sullivan Theater for roughly 33 years. Whether he returns to late night in another form or pursues film and other projects, the finale emphasized the tone he’s honed for decades: mixing satire, music and a wry, generous sense of mischief in the face of change.