{"id":657996,"date":"2026-05-22T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657996\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:09:08","slug":"stephen-colbert-late-show-last-episode-paul-mccartney-wormhole-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657996\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert Late Show Last Episode: Paul McCartney, Wormhole, Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNine months after Stephen Colbert<\/a> announced the cancellation of the long-running Late Show<\/a>, he presided over the final episode of the CBS late night show, with Paul McCartney serving as his final guest after, Colbert joked, his \u201cwhite whale\u201d<\/a> guest of the pope \u201ccanceled,\u201d disappointed with the hot dogs offered in his dressing room.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the top of his monologue, the host said originally the Late Show team had planned to do a \u201chuge special\u201d for the final episode, but then they realized that \u201cevery episode is special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe best way to celebrate is to do a normal show and talk about the national conversation,\u201d Colbert said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that, the host launched into a news-focused monologue, frequently interrupted by star cameos from the audience, including from Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnexpectedly, though the monologue was remarkably light on politics for a show that\u2019s become known for its cutting comedy about President Donald Trump and other political figures.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, Trump himself wasn\u2019t even mentioned by name in the final Late Show, including in the monologue. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe closest Colbert came to mentioning the president was when he and McCartney were talking and McCartney recalled how the makeup artists at the Ed Sullivan Show put so much makeup on that they looked \u201cbright orange,\u201d the Beatles star said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s very popular in certain circles,\u201d Colbert said, before joking \u201cthat\u2019s where it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCartney took the stage after a running bit throughout the monologue and an installment of The Late Show<\/a>\u2018s signature \u201cnews you missed\u201d segment, \u201cMeanwhile,\u201d of stars in the audience thinking they\u2019d be Colbert\u2019s final guest, including Ryan Reynolds.<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert then began to introduce his \u201cinfallible\u201d final guest, the pope, who he\u2019s long said he was still desperate to have on the show. However, Colbert was told by one of his crewmembers, the pope was refusing to come out of his dressing room because they got him the wrong snacks.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that, the show cut to the outside of a dressing room door as an arm draped in papal vestments threw hot dogs out into the hallway, insisting he wouldn\u2019t take the stage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh no, the pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has canceled,\u201d Colbert said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCartney then walked out, saying, \u201cWhat about me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was just in the area and I was doing some errands,\u201d the musician said as he gifted Colbert with a framed photo of the Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two settled in for an interview but after a couple of segments of conversation, Colbert stepped away to address the \u201ctechnical difficulties\u201d plaguing the show up until that point as the sound and visual display around him kept glitching.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs he walked backstage, he saw a giant \u201cinterdimensional wormhole,\u201d as he was informed by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who showed up in yet another cameo.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTwo contradictory realities cannot co-exist without rupturing the space-time continuum,\u201d Tyson said. \u201cFor instance, if a show is No. 1 in late night but also gets canceled. \u2026 Your cancellation created a rift in the comedy-variety talk continuum, and if it grows all of late night television could be destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that, Tyson was swallowed up in the wormhole, but Colbert was soon joined by his fellow late night hosts \u2014 Jon Stewart and the Strike Force Five team of John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon \u2014 for some sage advice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe hole\u2019s here; you can\u2019t ignore it,\u201d Stewart said, arguing that the real question is \u201chow you choose to walk through it,\u201d suggesting that Colbert persevere in the face of darkness.<\/p>\n

\n\tOliver added, \u201cSometime this may come for all of our shows.\u201d But though it looks like the end, there\u2019s no need to despair, Colbert concluded. As the Strike Force Five team reminded him, he didn\u2019t stop doing his show after the 2016 election or during the COVID-19 pandemic. So the hosts temporarily banished the wormhole.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut alas when Colbert returned to the stage, so did the wormhole, this time at the top of the Ed Sullivan theater, sucking up the studio, his audience, band leader Louis Cato and Colbert himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that wasn\u2019t the end of the wormhole. After Colbert joined Elvis Costello and Jon Batiste for a performance of \u201cJump Up,\u201d McCartney took the stage with Colbert and the Late Show band to perform the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHello, Goodbye.\u201d Then, McCartney turned off the lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater and the wormhole sucked up the whole building, leaving just a small replica of it in a snow globe, playing the Late Show theme song, on the New York City sidewalk. Colbert\u2019s dog, Benny, sniffed around it as Colbert could be heard off camera saying, \u201cCome on, Benny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe episode opened with Colbert sharing a message to his audience both in the Ed Sullivan Theater and at home.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis show has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show the joy machine,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. But the thing is if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn\u2019t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe praised his staffers and their strong bonds as well as the support and energy of the audience, connecting his relationship with them all the way back to the first episode of The Colbert Report in 2005.<\/p>\n

\n\tIntroducing the concept of \u201ctruthiness\u201d that night, he vowed to \u201cfeel the news at you.\u201d Moving over to The Late Show, Colbert said he and his team realized their job was different on CBS.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were here to feel the news with you. I don\u2019t know about you but I sure have felt it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love doing this show for you, but what we really love is doing this show with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn July, Colbert announced that CBS had decided to cancel<\/a> The Late Show after its 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite CBS\u2019 claim that the cancellation was a \u201cpurely financial decision\u201d amid a challenging linear TV environment, with parent company Paramount adding that the move was \u201cnot related in any way to the show\u2019s performance, content or other matters,\u201d there\u2019s been widespread speculation about possible other reasons for the end of The Late Show.<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert has been a prominent critic of President Trump and, just days before news broke of the Late Show\u2018s end, Colbert criticized CBS parent company Paramount\u2019s controversial $16 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 election opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the summer, Trump celebrated the news of the Late Show cancellation on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired,\u201d the president wrote the day after the cancellation was announced. \u201cHis talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLess than two months after Colbert announced the Late Show was being canceled, the series won the best talk show Emmy.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn that speech, Colbert said that while he had initially set out to make a late night show about love, he later realized \u201cwe were doing a late night comedy show about loss. That\u2019s related to love, because sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense you might be losing it. Ten years later, in September 2025, my friends, I have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America. Stay strong, be brave, and if the elevator tries to bring you down, go crazy and punch a higher floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Colbert has addressed the speculation of there being an \u201canother reason\u201d for his exit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is a reason why people believe that \u2014 the network had clearly already done it once by cutting that $16 million check [to the Trump administration],\u201d Colbert told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent exit interview cover story<\/a>. \u201cMe being canceled reinforced a narrative that CBS already had a nimbus of knee-bending that they had created around themselves, because even their lawyers said there was no reason to cut the check, and then they did and gave no rationale for why they changed their minds, and then suddenly they got their broadcast license.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the reports that The Late Show was losing $40 million a year, which Colbert has joked about, he told THR<\/a> that figure \u201ccame as a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert\u2019s next endeavor is taking the avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan to Middle-earth as he co-writes an upcoming installment of the Lord of the Rings franchise<\/a>. Beyond that, the host has insisted he wanted to remain focused on finishing out The Late Show to the best of his ability before he considered other future moves. Still, he told Meyers in January<\/a> that he and his longtime collaborators, many of whom work with him at The Late Show, will \u201cdo something else together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Colbert recently told THR<\/a> he began fielding scripts immediately after he announced the end of The Late Show and that he could see \u201ccreating another show\u201d and still has the desire to perform.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGot to stay in front of the lens, baby,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\n\tShortly after The Late Show wraps, though, Colbert and his family, all of whom were at the Ed Sullivan Theater for his final episode, will head down to D.C. for his brother\u2019s wedding. He celebrated his son\u2019s college graduation this past Monday as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine months after Stephen Colbert announced the cancellation of the long-running Late Show, he presided over the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,11448,10674,16522,10675],"class_list":["post-657996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-late-night-tv","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-the-late-show","tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657996","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=657996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}