Stephen Colbert bids farewell to ‘The Late Show’ with help from Paul McCartney and surprise guests. See highlights.

Arts admin May 25, 2026 0 Comments

Stephen Colbert bids farewell to ‘The Late Show’ with help from Paul McCartney and surprise guests. See highlights.

Stephen Colbert has always had a bit of a surrealistic streak, with a touch of brainy absurdity peeking out from beneath his affable demeanor and nicely tailored suits. So it was fitting that when the end came for his “Late Show” on Thursday night, it brought an extended gag that conjured the end of … everything.

The lingering question of the night – who would be the final guest of Colbert’s 11-year run? — had been answered. After Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, and Ryan Reynolds lobbied for the position from their seats in the audience, and Tig Notaro feigned ignorance of the night’s special occasion, Paul McCartney emerged from the, er, wings to sit for Colbert’s last interview at the Ed Sullivan Theater. That’s a pretty good get, even if McCartney had just played “Saturday Night Live” last week, and Sir Paul presented Colbert with a large framed photograph of the Beatles playing on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” in the same theater, back in 1964. It was a nice way to close a TV loop.

Then things got wacky and cerebral. With Colbert, you figured they would.

Going backstage to investigate a technical glitch, Colbert encountered a digitally rendered green tunnel of sorts. Neil deGrasse Tyson showed up to explain that it was an interdimensional wormhole, the product of a rift in the universe — created by the incongruity of CBS canceling the most popular show on late-night TV. Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver arrived, with Kimmel, whose job was briefly thought to be in jeopardy last year, quipping that a similar wormhole appeared at his show but went away after a few days. Finally, the wormhole swallowed everything and everyone in the theater. Not in reality, of course. That would be major news. The bit went on a little too long, but you can’t say it lacked imagination.

And then, the joy of song. First, Elvis Costello, Colbert’s former bandleader Jon Batiste, and his current bandleader Louis Cato joined Colbert for a performance of Costello’s bluesy “Jump Up” before a stark black background. And the grand finale found all of the above joining McCartney and the show’s house band, the Great Big Joy Machine, for a rousing rendition of the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.”

But for the final goodbye, there was one last surreal touch. Paying tribute to the finale of “St. Elsewhere,” “The Late Show” went out with an image of the theater being sucked into a snow globe. Colbert’s dog, Benny, walked up, sniffed a little, and we heard Colbert’s gentle voice: “Come on, Benny. Let’s go.” And the rest, as they say, is silence.