CBS / The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The final episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert aired on CBS Thursday night. For his last stand, Colbert brought out some of the biggest names in entertainment, actors and musicians, and put on one of the best shows in his career.
The late night start time is past many folks’ bedtimes so I thought we could recap Stephen Colbert‘s final Late Show episode here with a full rundown of the cameos, jokes, and more.
Full Recap Of Stephen Colbert’s Last Show
Stephen‘s proper intro to the show came in the form of a mashup from his contemporaries, fellow comedians and late night TV hosts, all roasting him throughout the years. He mashed it all up together into one glorious introduction:
Special guest appearances during Stephen Colbert’s monologue then began with Bryan Cranston in the audience who was the first to ask questions and poke fun at the scripted monologue. Paul Rudd showed up telling Stephen he’d written a poem despite Colbert assuming a gold watch was the traditional retirement gift. His old friend and SNL veteran Tim Meadows came next.
This took them through their first commercial break. Stephen came back and broke down a few recent viral news stories like that dancing robot that fell during ‘Billie Jean’ which led to one of the most hilariously dystopian clips in a long time.
Those clips led into Stephen Colbert eventually saying “Anyone illegally using that music is gonna have to pay through the nose…” when his band fired up the song from Peanuts. He then joked “Oh no! I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!”
LOL Stephen Colbert is making his band play licensed music during his final show so CBS – who fired him – will get sued and have to pay millions
"Anyone illegally using that music is gonna have to pay through the nose–"
[band starts playing]
"Oh no! I hope this doesn't cost… pic.twitter.com/mOeZMXEZpv
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) May 22, 2026
Of course, this won’t actually cost CBS millions as they old an ASCAP license which grants them legal permission to play songs form the ASCAP catalog, of which this song is in. But the joke is still solid nonetheless.
Then came another celebrity cameo, this time it was comedienne Tig Notaro in the audience. Colbert hit her with ‘let me guess, you also thought you were going to be my guest tonight?’ and in the classic dry fashion of Tig she gave him nothing in return. She said “no, I just like to be at historic events.”
Up next was celebrity Ryan Reynolds who played along, acting like he believed he was Colbert’s last guest. For what it’s worth, Ryan is looking insanely tan these days. He joked that he was just ‘happy to be there’ and ‘paying his last respects,’ a phrase typically reserved for death. Ryan then revealed he was referring to Colbert’s keyboardist in the band.
Who Was Stephen Colbert’s Final Guest?
After the second commercial break, Stephen Colbert appeared to introduce Pope Leo. Leading up to this Late Show With Stephen Colbert finale, there was a lot of chatter that the devout Catholic Colbert had landed an appearance from Pope Leo. Alas, he did not.
But, in a 1966 interview John Lennon set Americans into an absolute uproar with his quote “we’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” And while Colbert couldn’t land His Holiness Pope Leo for the finale, he did land Sir Paul McCartney who by John Lennon’s quote is (was?) more famous than Jesus… The blowback from that quote was wild back then by the way, look up the historical response if you never have.
Some scenes from the finale were deemed ‘too long to broadcast’ by CBS. That’s a shame because this might be the best clip from the night with the biggest stars around all asking Stephen Colbert questions with him on the hot seat:
The Paul McCartney interview clips were broken up into several. Apologies for having to include multiple videos in this section but such is life:
Not to jump too far ahead after all that, but the show ended with a larger-than-life musical number. Stephen Colbert, Elvis Costello, Sir Paul McCartney, Jon Batiste, The Great Big Joy Machine, and the entire staff of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert all came together for a Beatles mashup of ‘Jump Up’ and ‘Hello Goodbye’ with the latter closing out the night.
All in all, it was a pretty perfect final week for Stephen Colbert who has been entertaining me on late night TV for as long as I’ve been old enough to stay up and watch it. I was fortunate enough to go watch a live filming of The Colbert Report years ago when he was still with Comedy Central and I was still living in NYC.
The energy he brought to the stage was infectious. He spent a lot of time before the show taking questions from people in the audience and was thoughtful and took his time with all of the responses. For a man who has seen as much success as he has, it seemed like a very powerful gesture to share his time with the audience members who were so excited to be there.