Stephen Colbert went out with a bang hosting his final episode of “The Late Show” Thursday night after CBS canceled the program last year.
He brought out multiple surprise guests including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro, Ryan Reynolds and more, as part of a running gag in which all of them thought they were going to be Colbert’s final guest.
During his final monologue, Colbert, 62, said goodbye to both the live audience inside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City and fans watching at home.
“This show has been a joy for us to do for you,” Colbert began, adding the show has been dubbed the “Joy Machine.”
“I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other, and how much we mean to each other,” Colbert said. “We love doing the show for you, but what we really love, is doing the show with you.”
He then played a montage of other late night shows poking fun at Colbert and the program before the show’s iconic intro.
“We’ve had so much fun in this theater,” Colbert added, before showing a “first draft” of his goodbye card, where he asked, “How do you start an OnlyFans?”
Colbert added they had planned on doing a big “special,” but he decided to do a regular episode instead, though he was interrupted by Bryan Cranston.
Colbert joked that celebrity cameos feel “kind of forced,” but Cranston suggested he could be the last guest. Colbert said he already had a pretty special guest lined up, so Cranston stormed off and threw his hat.
Colbert did a few more monologue bits before he was interrupted again by Paul Rudd, who said he had a poem he wanted to recite, but Colbert broke the news to him that he was also not the final guest.
Tim Meadows told Paul to accept the fact he would not be the final guest, assuming it would be him, since his relationship with Colbert dates back to their Second City days years ago. But Meadows too stormed off.
After the monologue, Colbert delivered a final installment of the show’s “Meanwhile” segment, breaking down news stories about home distilling and a lawsuit involving Peanuts music.
His house band — Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine — then proceeded to play some of that music, as Colbert joked, “I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money.”
Tig Notaro, spotted in the audience, said she likes to be around during historic events, and she didn’t think she would be the final guest.
Ryan Reynolds then interrupted, believing he was going to be the final guest, but Colbert said he would not be either. Instead, Colbert said the “very special final guest” would be unveiled after the commercial.
He joked that the final guest was supposed to have been none other than Pope Leo XIV, but a miscommunication on his “rider” led to him cancelling the appearance.
Paul McCartney then gamely appeared and volunteered to be the final guest, saying he’d been in the area running some “errands” and had brought Colbert something.
Colbert then pulled out a framed, autographed photograph of the Beatles during their historic 1964 performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
“It’s fantastic to come back here. I always remember the girls in the balcony. Mr. Sullivan was really nice, a really good guy,” McCartney said.
“People said this was the biggest show, but to tell you the truth, we had never heard of it,” he said, adding that the make-up girls made him “bright orange.”
When asked if the band was pleased with how it went, McCartney said, “We’re live, and we sound good, man.”
He admitted, “We were a little bit nervous, but we were young kids and full of ourselves. You know, it was very exciting.”
It was their first ever visit to America, he said, adding, “America is where all the music we loved came from, so that’s what we thought of America, the land of the free, the greatest democracy, that’s what it was, and hopefully still is.”
But in the middle of McCartney’s interview, a technical glitch seemingly occurred, with a bizarre graphic appearing on the digital backdrop behind him.
McCartney continued discussing his upcoming album, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” which is set for release on May 29 and was inspired by his neighborhood growing up.
“One day, the boys, a couple of big strapping guys, decided to mug me. I was little and scrawny and they were big and ugly and they wanted my watch. However, I reported them to the cops and I got my watch back,” McCartney said.
Colbert noted during the interview that he has a lot of superstitions before a show, with McCartney adding that he always has a “cheese and pickle sandwich” after a show, “accompanied by a margarita.”
McCartney admitted that fans often misinterpret his songs to him, saying, ” ‘Strawberry Fields,’ the beginning says, ‘Living is easy with the eyes closed,’ ” but some people think it’s “Living is easy with nice clothes.”
Then another “glitch” happened, and Colbert pretended to take another commercial break so he could investigate.
He went backstage and found a huge green portal that started sucking objects into it, including his Apple watch.
Neil deGrasse Tyson arrived, saying it was an inter-dimensional wormhole. He said that Colbert’s cancellation created a rift that could lead to the end of late night forever — though Colbert ended up pushing Tyson into the wormhole.
Colbert asked if there was a mentor figure around, which led to Jon Stewart arriving with a statement from Paramount.
Stewart wondered if Colbert might have been in denial about his cancellation, leading to a Colbert spit take.
The rest of the late-night hosts arrived — Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver — with words of wisdom to help Colbert process the end of his beloved talk show.
Colbert returned to the stage and told more jokes before the green wormhole reappeared, apparently sucking up everything and everyone from the theater — with Colbert throwing it to commercial before he disappeared.
Colbert was next seen in a desolate space, where he started singing “Jump Up” by Elvis Costello, joined by his bandleader Louis Cato, singer Jon Batiste and Costello himself.
They cut back to the studio, with McCartney, Costello, Batiste and Colbert all singing the Beatles classic “Hello, Goodbye” alongside the full house band.
Colbert’s family and his full staff filled the stage and the balcony above, clapping along to the song.
Colbert then snuck away to pull the breaker for the studio, but gave the honors to McCartney. When the Beatles legend did, the green wormhole returned, sucking up the entire Ed Sullivan Theater and producing a tiny snow globe with the theater inside, as the final episode came to a close.
Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from David Letterman, who retired after more than 20 years. George Clooney was Colbert’s first guest.
Letterman, 79, returned to the show last week and unloaded on CBS for axing the series. He and Colbert also joined forces for a segment where they tossed furniture off the roof of the Manhattan theater.
In addition to Letterman, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama and Christopher Nolan stopped by for Colbert’s final episodes.
Colbert announced the end of the show after nearly 33 years in July 2025, telling viewers that he found out about the decision the previous evening.
“I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” he told the audience.
Before the cancellation news, Colbert criticized CBS’s parent company, Paramount, regarding its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris ahead of the Skydance Media-Paramount merger.
At the time, CBS claimed they canceled the series as a “purely financial decision” that was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
During one of his July 2025 monologues, Colbert said, “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.
“But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help,” he jokingly added.
Become a Page Six Hollywood Insider for FREE for the best stories, commentary and analysis in the business of entertainment.
Daily newsletters, weekly podcasts and exclusive events will bring you all you need to know to stay in the know.
Before hosting his final show, Colbert admitted to People he thinks the cancellation “saved [his] life.”
“It takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do,” he said.
Colbert also said he’s looking forward to being an empty nester with his wife Evelyn McGee Colbert. They share adult children Madeleine, 31, Peter, 28, and John, 24.
As for his next projects, Colbert has been tapped to write an upcoming “Lord of the Rings” film with son Peter — but he told People he’s still plotting his future.
“So I don’t have much better of an answer than most college seniors do, which is I’ve got to finish this first, because it takes almost the entirety of my brain to do this show,” he said.
“So we’ll land this plane and we’ll check out the view from there.”
What do you think? Post a comment.