Stephen Colbert ends The Late Show with 'normal' episode and a string of celebrity guests
Stephen Colbert ended The Late Show with a "normal" episode filled with celebrity cameos on Thursday (21.05.26) night.
Stephen Colbert's final show has aired
The 62-year-old comic - who took over the programme from David Letterman in 2015 - took to the stage one last time for his CBS late night show and while he had originally planned to sign off with a "huge special", he and his team ultimately realised "every episode is special".
He said in his opening monologue: “The best way to celebrate is to do a normal show and talk about the national conversation."
Colbert then launched into a typical news-focused monologue but was frequently interrupted by famous faces in the audience, including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows.
While a host of other celebrities, including Ryan Reynolds, appeared thinking they would be the show's final guest, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney was in fact the real last interviewee.
However, a sketch teased the pope - who Colbert had long said he was desperate to have on the show - was supposed to be on but a crew member declared he had refused to leave his dressing room because he had the wrong snacks. The camera then cut to the outside of a dressing room door, where an arm in a papal robe threw hot dogs out into the hall way.
The host said: “Oh no, the pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has cancelled."
McCartney then walked out and asked: “What about me?”
The two then sat down for an interview but before long, Colbert stepped away to address the "technical difficulties" causing issues witht he sound and video effects. As he stepped backstage, he saw a huge "interdimensional wormhole", which Neil DeGrasse Tyson explained that the fact The Late Show was top of the late night ratings but also got cancelled had “created a rift in the comedy-variety talk continuum and if it grows all of late-night comedy could be destroyed.”
Tyson was swallowed up by the wormhole and Colbert was joined by fellow late night hosts, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon — whose own shows had "gone dark" and aired reruns as a mark of respect - for some advice.
Stewart said: “The hole’s here but you can’t ignore it. The real question is how to go through it.
Oliver added: “Eventually the hole’s going to come for all of us."
The presenters reminded Colbert he didn't stop doing his show after the 2016 election or the COVID-19 pandemic and they temporarily banished the wormhole, only for it to return at the top of the Ed Sullivan Theater to suck up the studio and everyone in it.
Colbert then joined Elvis Costello and former bandleader Jon Batiste for a performance before McCartney stepped on stage with the host and the Late Show band to perform The Beatles' Hello, Goodbye.
But as the Hey Jude hitmaker turned off the lights in the theatre, the wormhole sucked up the building, leaving a tiny replica in a snowglobe on the sidewalk as the show's theme song played.
Colbert's dog, Benny, sniffed around the trinket and the host could be heard saying off camera: "Come on, Benny".
