“The Late Show” Ends: Stephen Colbert Caps an Era With Paul McCartney and a Legendary Sign-Off
There were surprise guests, fond farewells, and a bittersweet atmosphere in the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 21, 2026, as Stephen Colbert and a slew of stars said goodbye to one of television’s most beloved institutions. The end of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert is the end of an era, and in a fitting tribute, Colbert had Paul McCartney turn off the lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater to cap the show’s long run.
McCartney played the show out by singing the Beatles’ classic “Hello Goodbye,” joined by former band leader Jon Batiste, current band leader Louis Cato, Elvis Costello, and a slew of staffers.
#StephenColbert ends “The Late Show” by playing “Hello, Goodbye” with Paul McCartney.
(via “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” / CBS)https://t.co/rMws5pmnyI pic.twitter.com/Hq0G4FS7XC
— Variety (@Variety) May 22, 2026
The final episode came nine months after Colbert went on air to announce the shocking cancellation of The Late Show, and McCartney served as the final guest after Colbert joked that his previous choice, none other than the pope, had canceled on him. (Colbert’s staff informed him that Pope Leo was disappointed with the hot dogs in the dressing room and therefore refused to come out.) McCartney stepped in on the pope’s behalf, saying he’d just been in the neighborhood running errands, and then gave Colbert a framed photo of the Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show aired on February 9, 1964, and is credited with being the moment the already rising British band skyrocketed into stardom, making them the most successful group in history. Some 73 million viewers were reported to have watched the Beatles that night, about half of the U.S. population at the time.
Colbert emphasized at the top of the show during the monologue that he and his staff had thought about doing a “huge special” for the final episode, but decided that the most fitting tribute was a normal show and one more opportunity to “talk about the national conversation.”
Yet Colbert’s monologue, which was once again focused on the news, was repeatedly interrupted by stars—Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, Tig Notaro, and Tim Meadows. One running gag was that stars in the audience believed they would be Colbert’s final guest, including Ryan Reynolds.
Another cameo involved Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was on hand to explain the interdimensional wormhole that the Late Night cancellation had created.
“Two contradictory realities cannot co-exist without rupturing the space-time continuum,” Tyson said. “For instance, if a show is No. 1 in late night but also gets canceled. … Your cancellation created a rift in the comedy-variety talk continuum, and if it grows all of late night television could be destroyed.”
That was the end of Tyson—he was swallowed by the wormhole created by the Late Show‘s untimely demise—but soon enough, Colbert was joined by Jon Stewart and his fellow Strike Force Five teammates: Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, and Jimmy Fallon.
“The hole’s here,” Stewart said. “You can’t ignore it.” What Stewart argued was that Colbert’s job was to “choose how you walk through it.”
While Colbert is at work on a Lord of the Rings movie, it’s unclear what will happen to the legendary venue where he hosted his show. Its historical landmark designation means it will remain in use as a theater, but the capacity in which it will be used has yet to be determined. It’s gone through several iterations in its nearly 100-year history, opening as Hammerstein’s Theater in 1927 and operating as a Broadway theater for nine years. It then became the Manhattan Theater, and later Billy Rose’s Musical Hall. In 1936, it became the home of CBS Radio’s soundstage, and in 1948, it became a proper TV studio. In 1953, it became Ed Sullivan’s workplace, known then as Studio 50, and was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967. It was eventually landmarked in 1988, and Dave Letterman moved in. The theater became a full working studio once again in 1993, when CBS stopped renting it and bought it outright.
After McCartney cut the lights, the Ed Sullivan Theater was sucked into the wormhole that had swallowed Tyson before, leaving a tiny replica of the building in a snow globe as the Late Show theme song played. Colbert’s dog, Benny, sniffed around the snow globe, but Colbert, off camera, said, “Come on, Benny.”
The show was over.
Featured image: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Thursday’s May 21, 2026 show. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk ©2026 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
