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Late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel are standing in solidarity with Stephen Colbert on his final night on the air. In order for him to recieve the full attention of the late night audience, The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! will air re-runs.
The last episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air on Thursay, May 21 after CBS announced last year that it was being canceled for “financial reasons” — an excuse that many believe is a cover-up for a politically-motivate decision as its parent company seeks approval for a high-profile corporate merger.
Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel will be airing re-runs of their late night shows in solidarity with Stephen Colbert on his final night on the air
Earlier this week, Jimmy Fallon announced that NBC will air a rerun of The Tonight Show on May 21 rather than a new episode, joining Jimmy Kimmel — who previously announced he’d be doing the same — in stepping aside to give The Late Show its largest possible audience on its last night.
On Monday, May 11, Fallon, Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver all appeared on The Late Show for a reunion of Strike Force Five — the podcast the five late-night hosts created during the 2023 Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes, with proceeds going to support the crew members of all five shows who went without pay during the work stoppage.
Colbert’s final episode will feature appearances from Tom Hanks, Barack Obama, David Letterman, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
CBS announced the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in July 2025, with many in the industry believing that Colbert’s criticism of President Trump playe a signficant role, which is a theory that was only bolstered by the timing of the cancellation following Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump and its merger with Skydance Media.
That company is now also seeking to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery for a reported $111 billion price tag, with 38.5% of the funds coming from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
If Paramount does take control of the Warner Bros., the Ellison family — major ideological and financial backers of Donald Trump — will have control over CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Network, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, Showtime/Paramount+, CBS News, HBO, HBO Max, CNN, TBS, TNT, Warner Bros. film studio, DC Studios, the entire Harry Potter and Game of Thrones franchises, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Animal Planet, and Turner Sports.