An era of late-night broadcasting has officially come to an end. On Thursday night, May 21, 2026, host Stephen Colbert signed off from CBS’s The Late Show for the very last time, bringing down the curtain on his historic 11-year tenure. Rather than a quiet goodbye, the 62-year-old comedian transformed the Ed Sullivan Theater into a massive, star-studded celebration, pulling out a staggering lineup of Hollywood A-listers to help bid farewell to television’s top-rated late-night program.
The Stephen Colbert Late Show series finale Paul McCartney 2026 broadcast featured an extended 77-minute runtime, allowing the show to balance its trademark political wit with emotional, nostalgic goodbyes after CBS shock-canceled the franchise due to corporate financial restructuring.
Calling The Late Show a “joy machine” during an emotional opening address, Colbert thanked his staff, crew, and viewers at home for walking alongside him through over 1,800 episodes. However, the sentimental tone quickly gave way to comedy as a wave of high-profile actors repeatedly crashed the stage to complain about the show’s secretive final guest list.
• Bryan Cranston: The Breaking Bad star dramatically interrupted the monologue from the audience, ripping off his Late Show hat and storming out after realizing he wasn’t the exclusive final guest.
• Paul Rudd: Appeared on stage to offer the traditional late-night retirement gift of six bananas (which he promptly ate down to five) while presenting a comically long farewell poem.
• Tim Meadows: Confronted Colbert about their early comedy days together at The Second City before angrily storming off in tandem with Rudd and Cranston.
During Colbert’s final “Meanwhile” segment, the camera cut to other heavy hitters hidden in the crowd, including Tig Notaro and a deadpan Ryan Reynolds, who claimed he only attended the taping to hand-deliver bananas to house band keyboardist Corey Bernhard.
The finale also leaned into sci-fi absurdity via a pre-taped sketch addressing the real-world controversy surrounding the cancellation. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared to explain that a top-rated late-night program being abruptly canceled had torn an interdimensional wormhole directly inside the theater.
Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart popped up to call the wormhole a metaphor for corporate television reality, which led to a historic crossover. Colbert was joined on screen by his late-night rivals-turned-friends: Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver (his former partners from the Strike Force Five podcast), who all gathered to send Colbert off into the unknown.
The final official guest of the night was none other than music legend Sir Paul McCartney, who gifted Colbert a signed portrait of The Beatles before reflecting on the band’s historic American television debut inside that very same theater in 1964.
To officially close out the 33-year-old CBS Late Show franchise, McCartney took to the stage to lead a raucous, emotional performance of the Beatles’ classic “Hello, Goodbye.” He was joined on stage by Colbert, former bandleader Jon Batiste, current bandleader Louis Cato, and veteran rocker Elvis Costello.
As the entire production staff swarmed the stage to sing along, McCartney handed the honor to Colbert to officially flip the switch and turn off the building’s power grid. Starting Friday, May 22, CBS will fill the historic 11:35 p.m. time slot with Byron Allen’s syndicated stand-up series Comics Unleashed, marking a permanent structural shift away from traditional big-budget broadcast talk shows.
