goodnight and good luck

In Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Finale, the Void Swallowed Show Business Itself

Colbert signed off after getting absorbed into a metaphorical (and literal) black hole, with Jon Stewart delivering this statement: “Paramount strongly believes in covering both sides of any black hole that is swallowing everything we know and love, and coverage must also include the positive aspects of the insatiable emptiness.”

By Joy Press, May 22, 2026

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is officially a late show, as in it’s no longer with us. Its last Questionert has been answered; its final rescue dog has been rescued; its ultimate guest, Sir Paul McCartney, has left the building. Colbert filled his 80-minute finale with the same thoughtfulness, warmth, and irony that characterized his show over the last decade. In an earlier episode leading up to the end, his late-night compadre Jimmy Kimmel expressed what many of us watching felt: “I’m waiting for angry Stephen to come out! I want to see you go nuts.” But Colbert chose to leave the stage with grace and tenderness rather than rancor.

The 10 months since CBS announced Colbert’s cancellation have served as an extended advance wake—for the show but also for an entertainment industry impervious to political pressure. One of The Late Show’s last guests, Bruce Springsteen, put it bluntly on Wednesday night, expressing solidarity with Colbert and dubbing him “the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke.” And, Springsteen added, because new Paramount owner David Ellison and his father, Larry, “feel they need to kiss [Donald Trump’s] ass to get what they want.”

Before Trump, generations of presidents grinned and bore their late-night teasing—which sometimes even happened to their faces, as when Colbert brutally roasted George W. Bush over his deathly low approval rating and the energy crisis (sound familiar?) at the 2006 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And it wasn’t just Republican leaders. In July 2024, Colbert joked about then president Joe Biden’s debate performance: “I think Biden debated as well as Abraham Lincoln if you dug him up right now.” In fact, Democrats were the butt of most late-night jokes when Barack Obama was in power, and Bill Clinton was Jay Leno’s favorite target.

But when Colbert first materialized on the late-night scene, he wasn’t really a talk show host in the Carson or Letterman tradition. On The Daily Show, he parodied a conservative pundit, raging Bill O’Reilly style against all things liberal. In 2005 he spun off this performance art piece into The Colbert Report, where he coined the term truthiness in his very first episode. “Anybody who knows me knows I’m no fan of dictionaries or reference books,” his character declared. “They’re elitist, constantly telling us what is or isn’t true or what did or didn’t happen.” His preference was to rely on his gut rather than knowledge.

Colbert put his finger on the emerging embrace of alternative truths and conspiracy theories, a pick-your-facts hostility to experts and professionals of every kind. Not for nothing did Trump name his social media network Truth Social and call its posts “truths.” Late last year, after CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show, Trump continued to unleash “truths” on Colbert. After taunting him about “his nonexistent ratings” (Late Show was actually the most watched show in its time slot), the president continued: “Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”

As host of The Late Show, Colbert synthesized the sharp political commentary of his old show; the wacky hijinks of predecessor David Letterman; and his own much more empathetic and sincere personality. This was often evident in his sensitive interviews with guests, which were never of the “gotcha” variety. (Comedian Tig Notaro, who was one of many celebrity cameos in the final episode, recently told VF about the night Colbert’s deep kindness reduced her to tears.) He saved the gotchas for the politicians and hypocrites of all stripes.

That continued into his last weeks on the air. In his final set of shows, Colbert mocked the moving target that is the Iran peace plan by creating a commercial for the “Donald Trump Desktop End-of-the-Iran-War-a-Day” calendar, complete with the president’s daily contradictory statements. He featured a montage of Trump negotiating with himself over the lawsuit he settled that resulted in the $1.8 billion slush fund, also working in references to Jeffrey Epstein whenever possible.

Some episodes in his final week felt a bit forlorn. Colbert’s “Worst of The Late Show” bit had a bitter, fuck-you vibe—presented “as if ratings didn’t even matter anymore.” What’s the point of gathering the best of 1,800 shows, he asked. “Y’all got YouTube, you do it!” Instead, the episode, full of in-jokes, served as a salute to his staff, who made up the whole audience that night. He revealed graphics they’d ditched (RIP to that “Hillary Rodham Clinton 45th President of the United States” image) and a production number about fish, sung to the tune of “It’s Raining Men,” that understandably never made it to air. After running a long, unfunny video of a nostalgic visit to Chicago with his longtime collaborator Paul Dinello, Colbert said, “I can see why we didn’t run that.”

Celebrities brought him presents and offered tributes on his last shows. Julia Louis-Dreyfus came bearing a mini roast created by Veep writers, which she presented in the style of Selina Meyer. (“Your cancellation gave Donald Trump so much pleasure, I always think of you as the Stormy Daniels of late night.”) David Byrne offered a rendition of “Burning Down the House,” at the end of which Colbert did his own gleeful interpretive dance. A parade of stars (Robert De Niro! Martha Stewart! Ben Stiller!) made micro-appearances, asking him questions as part of his own Colbert Questionert. And even more celebs appeared in the finale, hoping to be his last interview.

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