{"id":688002,"date":"2026-05-23T06:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T06:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T06:27:12","slug":"stephen-colberts-the-late-show-finale-drew-6-74-million-viewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/688002\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’ Finale Drew 6.74 Million Viewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe ratings are in, and it\u2019s official: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a> went out with a bang. A record-setting 6.74 million people tuned in to the watch the finale<\/a> on Thursday night, according to reports<\/a> of preliminary data<\/a> from Nielsen. The feat marks the show\u2019s most-watched weeknight episode of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tThose historic ratings highlight a noteworthy spike from the show\u2019s first quarter of 2026 average, which came in at 2.69 million viewers, as Variety<\/a> reports. It\u2019s also just above the The Late Show\u2019s premiere back in 2015, which averaged 6.55 million viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe historic viewing numbers come less than a year after CBS made the decision<\/a> to end its late-night talk show, which Colbert had hosted for more than a decade. In August 2025, the network cited financial reasons for the perplexing move, but there continues to be speculation over the network\u2019s true motives. CBS\u2019 parent company, Paramount, was seeking to complete a merger with Skydance Media that needed government approval at the time. Additionally, just days before the news of the cancellation, Colbert called out Paramount for its $16 million settlement with Trump, a deal that the comedian-host dubbed \u201ca big, fat bribe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert closed out his beloved show with a star-studded night at New York\u2019s Ed Sullivan Theater. Paul McCartney<\/a> was the official final guest<\/a> on the show, but Jon Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Strike Force Five, and Neil deGrasse Tyson all made cameos. McCartney also brought the house down when he performed<\/a> alongside Elvis Castello, Colbert\u2019s former bandleader Jon Batiste<\/a>, and the show\u2019s\u00a0current bandleader Louis Cato to deliver a sweet rendition of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHello, Goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring his final monologue, Colbert spoke directly to the audience. \u201cOn night one of the\u00a0Colbert Report,\u201d he said, referring to his long-running Comedy Central talk show, \u201cI said, \u2018Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you.\u2019 And I realized pretty soon that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news\u00a0with\u00a0you, and I don\u2019t know about you, but I sure have felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ratings are in, and it\u2019s official: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert went out with a bang.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,3668,6713,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-688002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}