{"id":473578,"date":"2026-02-17T09:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473578\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T09:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:30:08","slug":"louis-catos-late-show-band-gets-new-name-ahead-of-series-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/473578\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Cato’s \u2018Late Show Band’ Gets New Name Ahead of Series Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just three months left to go at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a>, the show has a new band. Or rather, a new band name.<\/p>\n

The group formerly known as \u201cLouis Cato and The Late Show Band\u201d is now \u201cLouis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine.\u201d Bandleader Louis Cato<\/a> announced the new name on Monday night\u2019s broadcast, with help from host Stephen Colbert<\/a>. The rebrand also doubles as the title of the group\u2019s upcoming album, set for release April 16.<\/p>\n

During the show\u2019s return from its first commercial Monday night, Colbert framed the news as something bigger than a simple rename. \u201cThis is a whole new band tonight,\u201d he told the audience. <\/p>\n

Pointing to a new graphic emblazoned on the set behind him, Cato revealed the updated moniker.<\/p>\n

Colbert added that the band\u2019s self-titled album, The Great Big Joy Machine, will benefit the Recording Academy\u2019s charitable arm. \u201cAll album proceeds are going to MusicCares,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cSo go get this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s first single, \u201cGratitude,\u201d is now available on streaming platforms. Viewers were also directed to scan a QR code linking to the group\u2019s newly launched social media pages and album pre-save options<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Late Show is set to end its run on May 21, bringing Colbert\u2019s decade-long tenure on CBS to a close. With that milestone approaching, Monday\u2019s announcement felt less like a cosmetic tweak and more like a transition plan.<\/p>\n

The band was originally formed by musician Jon Batiste<\/a> under the name Stay Human<\/a> before becoming the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in September 2015. After Batiste departed in August 2022, Louis Cato took over as bandleader, and the group was subsequently rebranded as Louis Cato and The Late Show Band.<\/p>\n

As Colbert put it on air: \u201cYou are a great big joy machine.\u201d With the clock ticking toward May, it appears that the band intends to keep generating that joy after the studio lights go down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just three months left to go at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the show has a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,52777,80739,219584,219585,10674,10675,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-473578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jon-batiste","10":"tag-louis-cato","11":"tag-louis-cato-and-the-great-big-joy-machine","12":"tag-stay-human","13":"tag-stephen-colbert","14":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}