Stephen Colbert signed off from The Late Show on CBS with an 80-minute finale packed with celebrity guests, including Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Bryan Cranston and Tig Notaro. The episode marked the end of the show, which CBS launched in 1993 for David Letterman and later handed to Colbert. The network has decided to cancel the programme, replacing its 11.35pm slot with the syndicated series Comics Unleashed.
Colbert, who has had nearly a year to process the decision, delivered a cheerful but bittersweet final instalment. The show made a running gag of a delayed reveal for the final guest, with Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Notaro and Ryan Reynolds interrupting various segments under the pretence that they might be the unnamed guest. Eventually, Colbert welcomed McCartney, highlighting the show’s home at the Ed Sullivan Theater, where McCartney performed with the Beatles in 1964.
McCartney shared vague memories of his Sullivan Show appearance and discussed accepting change, while Colbert joked about resisting iPhone updates. Their segments were interrupted by a recurring green light glitch, which led into a portal featuring prerecorded appearances from Jon Stewart and the “Strike Force Five” hosts: Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver. They bantered about the wormhole swallowing the show and mused on the collapsing network model and government interference.
Colbert ended the show by performing with Elvis Costello on an obscure B-side demo called Jump Up, a song he had praised in a 2012 NPR interview. The finale also included earlier appearances by David Letterman, Bruce Springsteen and Stewart, making it a star-packed farewell to a show that leaves the air as the No 1 network late-night programme.
