In July, Stephen Colbert looked directly into the camera and announced that his 11th season of “The Late Show” would be his last — bringing an end to the show’s 33-year run.
After hosting more than 1,700 episodes, Colbert will take his final bow under the lights of the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee on “The Late Show” Thursday night.
In the episodes leading up to Colbert’s final late night show, the comedian has hosted a series of high-profile guests — many of whom serve as a reminder that the CBS weeknight staple is nearing its end.
The show’s original host David Letterman returned to toss set furniture off the roof of the theater. Tom Hanks gifted Colbert a typewriter and Jon Stewart gave him an electric recliner.
The final countdown on “The Late Show” also featured David Byrne and Colbert — dressed in matching blue suits — performing the Talking Heads song “Burning Down The House,” a performance from Bruce Springsteen and a heartfelt conversation with Steven Spielberg.
The guest lineup for Thursday night’s series finale has not been revealed in advance.
Colbert took over as host of “The Late Show” in 2015 following David Letterman’s exit after 22 years behind the desk.
Before stepping into Letterman’s role, Colbert hosted his own hit Comedy Central series, “The Colbert Report,” and served as a frequent correspondent on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, building a large fan base for his political satire and improvisational comedy.
“I never dreamed I’d be so lucky as to have my name out there on Broadway on The Ed Sullivan Theater,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in a 2018 interview. “I’ll try very hard not to forget this is a privilege.”
CBS announced in mid-July announced that it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” following its 11th season, bringing “The Late Show” to an end. The network called the move “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Late-night shows have been hemorrhaging viewers across the last decade, with “The Late Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” each seeing declines of 70% to 80% since 2015, according to LateNighter.
Still, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” remains the most-watched program in its time slot, averaging 2.70 million viewers across 40 first-run episodes, per LateNighter.
The conclusion of “The Late Show” could mark an early sign of a fading cultural era, as audiences continue shifting their attention from late-night talk shows to streaming platforms and short-form media.
Colbert said he found the cancellation surprising, in part because he was encouraged by CBS in 2023 to sign a longer contract — up to five years — but ultimately signed a three-year deal, per The New York Times.
He added while CBS has said the show was canceled amid a struggling broadcast industry, he understands why the timing and circumstances have led some people suspect other factors influenced the decision.
“It’s possible that two things can be true. Broadcast can be in trouble. They cannot monetize because of things like YouTube, because of the competition of streaming. They’ve got the books, and I do not have any desire to debate them over what they say their business model is and how it does not work for them anymore,” Colbert told the Times.
“But less than two years before they called to say it’s over, they were very eager for me to be signed for a long time. So, something changed.”
He concluded, “I’ve really liked working with CBS. They’ve been great partners. And I’d like to end it that way. Eleven years is a long time to work here. And almost 10 years before that, almost 21 years altogether, in late night. I feel so much better to be ‘grateful for’ than to be ‘mad about.’”
Moments of faith and reflection with Colbert
Between monologues, political satire, sketches and cultural commentary, Colbert’s late-night talk show became a rare space where guests regularly and openly discussed faith, prayer, scripture and personal suffering in ways that almost never appear in mainstream media today.
Discussing faith and comedy with Dua Lipa
Grammy-winning pop star Dua Lipa turned the tables on Colbert, asking what role his faith plays in his life and whether his faith and comedy ever overlap.
Colbert described himself as a Christian and Catholic, adding that he hopes when he gets to Heaven that “Jesus has a sense of humor.”
He continued, “If there is some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it’s that no matter what happens, you are never defeated, you must understand and see this in the light of eternity and find some way to love and laugh with each other.”
An emotional conversation on loss with Andrew Garfield
As his conversation with Andrew Garfield neared its scheduled close, Colbert shifted to a more serious tone, asking the “Amazing Spider-Man” actor to reflect on grieving the recent loss of his mother to pancreatic cancer.
Moved by the question, he told Colbert through watery eyes, “I hope this grief stays with me, because it’s all the unexpressed love that I didn’t get to tell her.”
“We all know somewhere deep down that life is sacred and life is short, and we better just be here as much as possible with each other, holding on to each other,” the actor continued, adding that he has used his art “as a way to heal, as a way to sew up the wounds.”
Jim Gaffigan on his relationship with Jesus
Following a conversation with comedian Jim Gaffigan joking about how people misuse the “prayer hands” emoji online, Colbert asked Gaffigan — whose wife survived a life-threatening brain tumor — whether that experience changed his relationship with faith.
“This is the only show in America where it turns to like, ‘What about your faith, Jim?’” Gaffigan joked.
From that point, Gaffigan spoke openly about Christianity, prayer, religious community and relying on faith while supporting his wife through recovery.
“It’s imperfect — my faith,” Gaffigan said. “I need to believe that there is some greater power that is forgiving me for being the monster I am.”
Talking sobriety with Paul Walter Hauser
Paul Walter Hauser discussed with Colbert how his role on “Blackbird” was a life-changing experience that prompted him to get sober and heal his relationships.
“This changed my life because I ended up getting sober in the middle of the shoot,” Hauser said. “It was the catalyst for all these wonderful things that happened, including healing my family.”
Hauser then pointed to the Christian testimony platform “I Am Second” and briefly discussed how his faith supported him through his healing process.
What’s next for Stephen Colbert?
Colbert is uncertain what comes next “because the show takes like 95 percent of my brain,” he told The New York Times.
The television host is already working on a script for Warner Bros. for a new “Lord of the Rings” movie, alongside his son, Peter McGee, and original trilogy director Peter Jackson.
Beyond that, Colbert won’t decide what move to make next until the show officially concludes, though he is looking forward to taking a step away from the news cycle.
“Now I can be as interested as I want to be on a daily basis, as opposed to as interested as I need to be to do a show that is about what our national conversation was about,” he told the Times.
“I’m an American. I still care about my country. I’m still going to care, but I can do that recreationally, you know, or privately.”