'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Ends After 11 Years — Here's Everything That Happened in the Finale
After 11 years, approximately 1,800 episodes, and one final song from Paul McCartney, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert went dark Thursday night — and it went out exactly the way Colbert wanted.
The series finale, which ran 17 minutes longer than the show's usual hour, was broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York and packed with celebrity cameos, musical performances, and the kind of controlled chaos that has defined Colbert's tenure since he took over from David Letterman in September 2015. The show will not be replaced. CBS is ending The Late Show entirely.
"It's not just the end of our show, but it's the end of The Late Show on CBS," Colbert told his audience when he announced the cancellation last July. "I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away."
On Thursday night, it did — with considerable fanfare.
The Final Guest
Speculation had swirled for weeks about who would close out the finale. Colbert had joked repeatedly about wanting Pope Leo XIV as his final guest, and true to form, he worked the bit into the finale itself — joking that the Pope had refused to come out of his dressing room.
The actual final guest was Paul McCartney, 83, who closed out the show with a performance of "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles — a song whose title was almost too on the nose for the occasion. McCartney performed on the same stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater when the Beatles made their American television debut on Feb. 9, 1964. He had previously appeared on the show in 2019 and in 2009, when David Letterman was still the host. Colbert, bandleader Jon Batiste, and Elvis Costello joined McCartney onstage for the finale, as staff members filled the stage around them.
The Night's Guests and Performances
The finale was stacked. Surprise cameos came from Jon Stewart — Colbert's longtime Daily Show colleague — comedian Tig Notaro, actors Ryan Reynolds, Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, and Don Cheadle, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver also appeared. Both Kimmel and Fallon had agreed to air reruns Thursday so as not to compete with Colbert's send-off.
Jon Batiste, the show's former bandleader who departed in 2022 to focus on his music career, returned to perform Elvis Costello's "Jump Up" alongside Costello himself — a full-circle moment given Batiste's years at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
The Final Week
The finale capped a final week that felt like a greatest hits parade of Colbert's world. David Letterman — who first hosted The Late Show in 1993 and handed it to Colbert — returned earlier in the week to toss CBS property off the Ed Sullivan Theater roof, a callback to one of his own signature bits. Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg appeared Tuesday. Bruce Springsteen performed Wednesday.
Earlier guests in the closing weeks included Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and musical acts including the Strokes, Michael Stipe, Chris Stapleton, and the Foo Fighters — who had also served as the final musical guest of Letterman's farewell.
What Colbert Said
Colbert, who took over the show at 51 and leaves it at 61, kept his closing remarks characteristically personal and self-deprecating.
"We call it the joy machine, because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine," he told his audience. "But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn't hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears. And 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."
The show ended the way it began — at the Ed Sullivan Theater, with a live band, a studio audience, and Colbert at the center of it.
"Hello, Goodbye" played them out.
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