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The final episode of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired Thursday night with an extended run time of one hour and seventeen minutes, featuring a slew of star cameos, including a final send-off from Paul McCartney.
An emotional Colbert opened by addressing the Ed Sullivan Theater audience and viewers at home, calling The Late Show “the joy machine,” praising the staff and telling viewers “how important you’ve been to what we have done.”
Bandleader Louis Cato called it a “reciprocal emotional relationship.”
Colbert closed with his longtime sign‑off: “have a good show. Thanks for being here, and let’s do it, y’all!”
Cue the theme song.
Below, we’ve compiled the most memorable moments from the The Late Show‘s final farewell.
Celebrity cameos aplenty
A who’s who of celebrities turned up for a running gag. Each showed up convinced they were the final guest and had hilarious reactions when they realized they weren’t.
- Actor Bryan Cranston interrupted the opening monologue from the audience, ripped off his Late Show hat and stormed out, muttering how he was going to sell his ticket.
- Actor Paul Rudd said he’d brought a long poem and the traditional retirement gift of six bananas (which promptly became five).
- Actor and comedian Tim Meadows reminisced about his Second City days with Colbert, and then yelled and left angrily when he found out he too wasn’t the final guest.
- Comedian Tig Notaro quipped that she likes being at historic events like “the Obama inauguration and the moon landing.”
- Actor Ryan Reynolds, disappointed he wasn’t the final guest, said he came to pay his respects, bringing bananas for house band keyboardist Corey Bernhard.
- Earlier, Colbert pretended that Pope Leo XIV would be his final guest. The cameos segment ended with Colbert saying the Pope refused to come out of his dressing room.
WATCH | Colbert’s final Late Show monologue:
Final Late Show guest: Paul McCartney
After that, Paul McCartney walked onto the set with a gift for Colbert: a signed Beatles portrait. Colbert jokingly read the inscription out loud, “For Stephen — you’re better than the Beatles.”
McCartney reflected on the full‑circle moment, recalling performing at the Ed Sullivan Theater with The Beatles more than 60 years ago.
Technical difficulties? No, interdimensional wormhole
Throughout the show, brief green blips appeared on the set. When Colbert went to investigate, the blips revealed a so-called interdimensional wormhole. Colbert confronted it with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and playfully shoved deGrasse Tyson into the portal.
Other late‑night colleagues — Jon Stewart, Andy Cohen and the “Strike Force Five”: Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Seth Meyers — appeared in sketches about the wormhole eventually coming for all their shows.
Musical interlude
The show included an acoustic turn by Colbert of Elvis Costello’s Jump Up. He was joined by Costello, Louis Cato and former bandleader Jon Batiste.
A montage then depicted the wormhole swallowing people and objects around the theatre, followed by a large musical send‑off with McCartney leading Hello, Goodbye as the full Late Show crew came onstage.
The grand finale
Everyone sang, clapped and embraced the “joy machine” spirit Colbert invoked at the top of the show. Colbert let McCartney shut down the lights of the Ed Sullivan Theater one last time.
In a surreal bit, the theatre was sucked into the wormhole, became a snow globe, and Colbert’s dog Benny sniffed it — a whimsical sign-off that closed one chapter and hinted at the next.
Context and controversy
CBS announced last summer that it was cancelling The Late Show, saying it would end in May 2026, describing the move as a “purely a financial decision.” The move sparked skepticism because the announcement came two days after Colbert publicly criticized parent company Paramount Global for settling a lawsuit with U.S. President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes story. Many viewers and commentators suspected the timing signalled a political motive.
Colbert lampooned the cancellation in the finale with jokes — including a gag about stolen printer cartridges — while the debate over the reasons for his exit continued.
Thursday’s finale marked the end of Colbert’s 11‑year run. Both Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show aired repeats opposite the broadcast.
Beginning Friday, May 22, CBS will replace the 11:35 p.m. ET slot once occupied by The Late Show for the past 33 years with Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.
