Stephen Colbert bids The Late Show adieu with an assist from Paul McCartney
Macca gave Colbert a proper send-off last night by performing “Hello, Goodbye” and turning off the lights at Ed Sullivan Theater.
Image courtesy of CBS/The Late Show
Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show episode aired on CBS last night amid controversy over the network’s decision to cancel the program. The network cited “financial reasons” for ending the show, while critics have alleged that CBS was unwilling to continue airing content ideologically at odds with the Trump administration. Colbert went out with a bang, tapping Paul McCartney as the show’s final musical guest. It was a bittersweet moment for him and Macca, who first performed at the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1964 as a member of The Beatles. The Late Show has aired in the same room ever since David Letterman launched the program in August 1993. Before his performance, McCartney joined Colbert at the desk to discuss his forthcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, and present the host with a signed photo of the Fab Four performing at the theater. Pretending to read aloud from the inscription, Colbert joked, “To Stephen: You’re better than The Beatles. Paul McCartney.”
The show ended on an absurdist note, with Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson helping him enter a wormhole swallowing his entire show. “Why aren’t you guys being pulled in, too?” Colbert inquired. Jimmy Kimmel, whose own show was temporarily pulled off the air by ABC after comments he made about Charlie Kirk last year, replied: “One of these holes opened at my show last year, but it went away after three days.” The wormhole then spat Colbert out alongside Jon Batiste, Elvis Costello, and Great Big Joy Machine bandleader Louis Cato to perform one of Colbert’s favorite songs: “Jump Up.”
The group later joined McCartney onstage for a performance of “Hello, Goodbye,” which they delivered with unmistakable pathos in apparent reference to the show’s cancellation: “I don’t know why you say ‘goodbye,’ I say ‘hello.’” Colbert’s family, friends, and the show’s staff soon joined him onstage, hugging and holding hands as they celebrated the show’s 33-year run (11 of which came under Colbert’s leadership). At the song’s end, Colbert asked McCartney to do the honors: the singer fittingly cut the lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater, signaling the end of an era. The wormhole promptly fwooshed the show out of existence, turning the room into a miniature version of itself inside a snowglobe. Colbert’s dog Benny sniffed at the globe, becoming the final Late Show guest ever.
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