Stephen Colbert
Portal Medusa revealed what was on the final episode of The Late Show and how viewers reacted to it.
Exclusively financial decision
CBS claimed it was “an exceptionally financial decision amid a difficult situation in the late night show niche.” However, it was immediately linked to politics. Stephen Colbert made constant jokes about Trump on his program.
Shortly before the announcement of the closure of the show, Kolber criticized the company Paramount (owner of CBS) for the fact that it agreed to pay Trump $ 16 million. Thus, the company decided to settle the lawsuit that Trump filed because of the interview with Kamala Harris on the CBS program “60 Minutes”. Trump claimed that journalists tried to portray Harris in a more favorable light than was actually the case before the 2024 presidential election in which she was running.
What was in the last installment
“If you just turned on The Late Show, you missed a lot,” Stephen Colbert joked at the very beginning of the last episode. He began by saying thank you, noting that the program featuring him has been fortunate enough to air for 11 years, and “you can’t take that for granted.” Kolber said that The Late Show team originally planned to make the final episode “grand and special,” but they realized that “every episode is special.”
“The best way to celebrate is to have a regular show and talk about nationally relevant issues,” Colbert said and began his traditional news monologue. As he spoke, he was interrupted in the studio by actors Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, playing a joke about the competition to be the evening’s top star.
The star of the night was Paul McCartney
Sir Paul McCartney was the main star – the special guest on the latest edition of the show. He and Colbert recalled the Beatles’ performances at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater (where the final episode of The Late Show was filmed) and the band’s US tour.
At the end of the program, an “interdimensional wormhole” opened up in the theater, threatening to swallow up all U.S. late night shows. Along with on-air colleagues Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver, Colbert joked and speculated about the future of late night shows. And while colleagues tried to help Colbert deal with the wormhole, it eventually consumed not only himself, but the entire set.
At the finale of the program, Colbert and McCartney performed the song “Hello, Goodbye,” after which everyone who had worked on The Late Show took the stage to say goodbye to the audience.
How the public reacted
The press reaction to the last episode of The Late Show was mixed. The Hollywood Reporter noted the large number of “Easter eggs” in the final episode, and The Guardian – a lot of guest stars. Variety’s review called the episode a “disappointment” and the show itself “outdated,” though it noted that Colbert’s firing was unfair.
Viewers noted that there was surprisingly little politics in the latest episode for a program that is known for making sharp jokes about political figures, including U.S. President Donald Trump. Moreover, Trump himself was not even mentioned once in the final episode.
What Trump said
Trump, for his part, couldn’t resist commenting on the show’s closure: “Colbert has finally been removed from CBS. It’s amazing he lasted this long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead man. You could have taken any man off the street and he would have been better than this total douche. Thank God he’s finally gone!”
