{"id":240146,"date":"2026-05-22T02:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240146\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:13:14","slug":"new-yorkers-gather-for-sendoff-to-stephen-colbert-as-the-late-show-tapes-final-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240146\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers Gather For Sendoff To Stephen Colbert As ‘The Late Show’ Tapes Final Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Late Show<\/a>\u2018s 11-year run on CBS<\/a> ended on a muted note of melancholy Thursday \u2013 outside New York\u2019s Ed Sullivan Theater, at any rate.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Stephen Colbert<\/a> taped his final late-night episode for broadcast later Thursday, a crowd of a few dozen fans gathered in the chilly spring drizzle to pay their respects. Some carried hand-made signs with messages like \u201cThank you, Stephen\u201d and \u201cKeep Colbert, Fire Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThis being New York, the usual looky-loos showed up, drawn by the lights of TV cameras, clad in Late Show merch and hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of a member of the top-secret guest list for the finale. The number of fans was roughly equaled by the amount of security guards and cops as well as members of the media, meaning plenty of exposure for the woman dressed as Pope Leo XIV, a guest long sought by Colbert. Across 53rd Street, stars from a matinee performance of Broadway show The Great Gatsby drew a similarly sized crowd.<\/p>\n

\n\tAudience members were shown to their seats early Thursday afternoon. Several hours later, even after the last celebrities and VIPs had been dropped off at the Ed Sullivan stage door, fans lingered, not wanting to come to terms with the fact that the show had reached its final day. Apart from a few wistful exchanges about recent episodes, fans huddled under umbrellas and mostly kept their eyes trained on the and the scene had a decidedly subdued, desultory feel. The dejection briefly abated when people standing along the metal doors of the theater heard muffled cheers when the taping began, bringing a few smiles to the gathering.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrevailing sentiment on the street was unanimously against CBS parent Paramount<\/a>\u2018s decision last year to cancel The Late Show for what it has insisted were concerns about its loss-making financials and not Colbert\u2019s decade of deriding Trump. With timing destined to arouse suspicion, soon after announcing the show\u2019s cancellation, Paramount gained approval for its merger with Skydance from President Trump\u2019s FCC. Trump gloated about the cancellation on Truth Social, adding to the impression of a quid pro quo.<\/p>\n

\n\t \u201cIt\u2019s so stupid,\u201d muttered one passerby. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly the word for it!\u201d another responded. \u201cAll because the president can\u2019t take a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA few members of the crowd tried to keep things light, but the weight of the moment (not to mention the rain and the lack of paparazzi-worthy celebrity appearances) informed the mood. Colette Divine, an actor from Nashville, TN wearing a \u201cThank you, Stephen\u201d button, didn\u2019t hide the depths of her feelings for the late-night host. \u201cI\u2019m going to start crying again,\u201d she said when Deadline asked why she had come to the farewell without a seat inside the theater. During Covid, \u201ceverything was scary and unknown,\u201d the native New Yorker recalled, and tuning in to The Late Show helped provide some balance. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy mom and I would watch together,\u201d Divine said. \u201cI would FaceTime with her and hold the phone up to the TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the topic is perhaps not a top-of-mind one nationally, the fate of the Ed Sullivan Theater is on the mind of many New Yorkers. The venue opened in 1927 and has hosted famous performances by the Beatles and Elvis Presley before a makeover by Colbert\u2019s Late Show predecessor, David Letterman. The history of the landmarked building on Broadway is vivid enough such that Letterman got Paul McCartney to play a mini-concert on its marquee in 2009.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount has steadily been pruning its real estate portfolio, exiting the former CBS headquarters (aka Black Rock), selling Television City in Los Angeles and making plans to leave Viacom\u2019s longtime home in Times Square. It is aiming to close its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by September and aims to shed more non-core assets. A source familiar with the situation told Deadline the theater may join the list of properties on the block, but a refashioning as a Broadway house is unlikely. At the same time, a source inside the company says there are no current plans to sell the theater.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount rep referred Deadline\u2019s query about the theater to CBS, which declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Late Show\u2018s 11-year run on CBS ended on a muted note of melancholy Thursday \u2013 outside New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1871,153,2037,9,11,10,3005,25773,93848,60117],"class_list":["post-240146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cbs","tag-donald-trump","tag-late-night-tv","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-paramount","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-the-late-show","tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}