Stephen Colbert will bid farewell this week after his show was cancelled. The Late Show, and its much-loved host, will sign off on 21 May, leaving behind a challenging television landscape.
A Star-Studded Goodbye
Hugh Jackman sang a parody of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. Bette Midler performed a satirical rewrite of Wind Beneath My Wings. John Lithgow wrote and recited a poem entitled The Mighty Colbert. Jake Tapper hand-delivered a painting of Colbert as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. And Jimmy Fallon offered a pointed take on Frank Sinatra’s My Way: “And now the end is near / And so you face the final curtain / But Trump, he made it clear / He wants you gone / Of that we’re certain.”
A roll call of celebrities made pilgrimage to the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York in recent months to join a long goodbye to CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, honouring a voice that will be sorely missed from the national conversation.
Colbert’s Unique Voice
Colbert, 62, provided a nightly antidote for millions of viewers feeling discombobulated at the end of another day in Donald Trump’s dystopia. He cut through the malign chaos to reassure them that no, it was not them going mad but the world around them. He offered a contrast in character: where Trump is vainglorious, Colbert is irreverent; where Trump is narcissistic, Colbert exudes empathy; where Trump is indecent, Colbert manifests decency to the core.
Controversial Cancellation
When CBS announced last July that the Late Show would be cancelled, ending a 33-year television institution, many found the timing suspicious. The move came just three days after Colbert used his monologue to ruthlessly mock a $16m legal settlement between CBS’s parent company Paramount and Trump – and just a week before Paramount’s $8bn merger with Skydance was approved by federal regulators.
CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night”. Letterman, for one, isn’t buying it. “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying,” he told the New York Times earlier this month. “They’re lying weasels.”
History of Late Night
For a generation, late-night TV was ruled by Johnny Carson on NBC. Carson retired in 1992; a year later CBS launched The Late Show with Letterman. Colbert took over the desk in 2015, having previously portrayed a bombastic, rightwing blowhard on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.
Bill Carter, author of The Late Shift, says: “I thought he was brilliant almost beyond description in his previous late-night show. It was like no one’s ever done. He was doing essentially a sketch for nine years. It was satire on such a high level.”
Carter recalls Colbert struggled initially as a host. “He did struggle and he was definitely on the ropes. He was disappointing the management and I think Les Moonves basically gave Stephen an ultimatum: you’ve got to get the thing working.”
That he did, with the help of two men in 2016. First, producer Chris Licht, who focused Colbert on politics and satire. Second, Trump, whose political ascent changed everything. Each night Colbert delivered a caustic, piercing, witty, redemptive mini-state of the nation address, including his own Trump voice impression.
Stephen Farnsworth, co-author of Late Night With Trump, says: “If late-night comedy wanted to build a foil, it would look just like Donald Trump. You’re talking about someone who is an extraordinarily target-rich environment for late-night humour.”
More Than Mockery
Colbert offered a moral anchor, sensitive interviews, references to his Catholic faith, and a recurring segment with his wife Evie. David Litt, former Obama speechwriter, says: “He’s been an important satirical voice but I actually think he has also been an important moral voice. He had a unique ability to be human.”
Colbert was 10 when his father and two brothers died in a plane crash, bringing emotional honesty to his work. Carter observes: “As Johnny Carson once said, if you do this show long enough, who you are comes out. That is true of Stephen.”
Political Fallout
Trump had sued Paramount over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Colbert declared the settlement a “big fat bribe”. Trump responded on Truth Social: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
Late-night TV faces economic pressures, but many remain sceptical of CBS’s reasons. Carter says: “They have said it had nothing to do with politics. At some point you have to say, come on folks, it’s not hard to connect those dots.”
The Late Show will be replaced by Comics Unleashed. Carter calls it a white flag. “They are saying to the public: this is something we’re not gonna try to do any more.”
What’s Next for Colbert?
Colbert is working on a Lord of the Rings film script and has joked about running for president. Obama said, “I think that you could perform significantly better than some folks that we’ve seen.” Carter adds: “Colbert is a thoughtful, smart man. He has a lot of skill; he can do whatever he feels like doing.”
