{"id":595585,"date":"2026-05-21T04:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595585\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:45:13","slug":"stephen-colbert-is-saying-goodbye-to-the-late-show-how-it-ends-is-still-a-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595585\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert is saying goodbye to ‘The Late Show.’ How it ends is still a secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stephen Colbert\u2019s long goodbye to late-night TV ends Thursday night when the host of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d appears behind his CBS<\/a> desk for the final time. <\/p>\n

What is planned for the finale has not been revealed but the folks at \u201cThe Late Show\u201d have had months to prepare for the end of the network\u2019s 33-year franchise. <\/p>\n

Guests in the final week have included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart<\/a>, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen, while there’s been a wacky version of \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Men\u201d remade into \u201cIt\u2019s Raining Fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS announced last summer that Colbert\u2019s show would end, citing economic reasons after 11 seasons. But Colbert is the ratings leader in late-night TV. Many \u2014 including Colbert \u2014 have expressed skepticism that President Donald Trump\u2019s repeated criticism of the show wasn’t a factor.<\/p>\n

The decision to shutter the show came after parent company Paramount\u2019s $16 million settlement of Trump\u2019s lawsuit over a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview as Paramount<\/a> awaited his administration’s approval of a pending sale to Skydance Media. Colbert had called it a \u201cbig fat bribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dustin Kidd, a professor of sociology at Temple University, notes that Colbert leaves at the top of his game and as the ratings leader on late night. Canceling him can\u2019t be explained strictly through economics, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue that it\u2019s answerable, frankly, through politics,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of political pressure levied against this show and a lot of political pressure at work within CBS more generally. And I think that has a lot more to offer in terms of explaining why this show, at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colbert\u2019s chief rivals, ABC\u2019s \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d and NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,\u201d will both run reruns on Thursday night at the same time as Colbert’s goodbye.<\/p>\n

CBS will fill \u201cThe Late Show\u201d slot with \u201cComics Unleashed,\u201d in which comedians share stories. Host Byron Allen has vowed to avoid politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-595585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}