Stephen Colbert bid farewell to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after hosting for over a decade.
The 62-year-old comedian infused his signature humor into the CBS late-night show’s finale on Thursday, May 21. The show featured a comedic sketch about a backstage wormhole that threatened to whisk him away.
“I didn’t think my show would end like this,” Colbert quipped.
During the segment, fellow talk show hosts John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon joined him for a final goodbye.
When Colbert wondered why the wormhole wasn’t affecting the others, Kimmel humorously referenced his own experiences.
“You know what? Actually, one of these holes opened at my show last year, but it went away after about three days,” Kimmel joked.
Colbert remarked, “Now it looks like it’s the end, and I wish it wasn’t, but that’s not for me to decide.”
Elsewhere in the finale, Colbert joked about launching an OnlyFans account as a new career and urged the band to play costly music that CBS would have to pay for.
Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
The show came full circle as Colbert ended with an interview with Paul McCartney, joined by a slew of celebrity cameos.
Colbert began his final show by reminiscing about the Ed Sullivan Theater’s rich cultural history, where his show was filmed.
“There is so much history here in the Ed Sullivan Theater, and we’ve been honored to have been just a small part of it. Nichols and May played on the stage, The Beatles made their American debut here,” Colbert mentioned in his opening remarks.
He humorously added, “And this is true. This is true. Backstage, Elvis used the bathroom and didn’t die.”
Paul McCartney and Stephen Colbert. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
The episode featured numerous celebrity appearances, including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro, Ryan Reynolds, Elijah Wood, and Andy Cohen, with McCartney as the final guest.
McCartney, 83, reminisced about first visiting the theater in 1964 with The Beatles when they were “young kids” and “sort of full of ourselves.”
“Mr. Sullivan was really nice. He was a really cool guy,” McCartney recalled. “I mean, you know, we’d never been to America. We come here and people said, ‘This is like the biggest show,’ And we’re telling the truth, we’d never heard him, you know, in England. But yeah, so it was fantastic.”
During their conversation, Colbert cited lyrics from McCartney’s poignant new song “Days We Left Behind,” which include, “Nothing stays the same/ No one needs to cry.”
Colbert seemed to hint at the show’s conclusion, reflecting, “I’ve been thinking about change lately.”
McCartney wrapped up the evening by performing The Beatles’ 1960s classic, “Hello, Goodbye.”
In his final month at The Late Show, Colbert hosted several high-profile guests, including his Late Show predecessor David Letterman and President Barack Obama. Earlier in the week, Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Spielberg, and David Byrne joined him as he prepared to end the series.
Colbert began hosting The Late Show in September 2015 after Letterman retired, following 22 seasons from August 1993 to May 2015. Colbert led the Emmy-winning series for 11 seasons.
In July 2025, Colbert announced the show’s cancellation, responding to audience reactions with, “I share your feelings.”
“I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners,” he stated then. “And I’m grateful to the audience, you, who have joined us every night, in here, out there and all around the world.”
Colbert expressed gratitude to his team, stating, “We get to do this show for each other every day all day,” and wished for “somebody else” to take over after his departure.
CBS executives commented on the cancellation, attributing the decision to financial reasons unrelated to the show’s performance, content, or other matters at Paramount. The announcement followed Paramount Global’s lawsuit settlement with President Donald Trump before Skydance Media’s acquisition of the company, which Colbert criticized on air.
“I do not dispute their rationale [that it was for financial reasons],” Colbert told The New York Times in an April interview. “I do make jokes about it.”
“But I also completely understand why people would say (A) that doesn’t make sense to me and (B) that seems fishy to me,” he continued. “Because the network did it to themselves by bending the knee to the Trump administration over a $20 billion, settled for $16 million, completely frivolous lawsuit.”
Colbert has yet to publicly outline his future plans after The Late Show concludes, though he plans to step back from the news cycle temporarily.
“I love what we do and I love the grind,” he told GQ in November 2025. “You can only do one of these shows, do the jokes every night, year after year for 20 years, if you give a damn at all about what you’re talking about. And I do. But there is a sense of relief that I might not have to put on the snorkel and get into the sewer every day.”
He added: “I know who I am without this. … I was married with all my children before I was Stephen Colbert, that anybody would know. And my identity is associated with that. And the family I grew up with and my faith.”
In the absence of The Late Show, Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen will take over its time slot on CBS.
