Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

What we’re losing as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” ends

We'll see Stephen Colbert again, but his broadcast exit closes out David Letterman's absurdist TV legacy

Published May 21, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)

Long before CBS announced it was pulling the plug on “The Late Show,” its host Stephen Colbert had already laid claim to helming one of late-night’s greatest finales.

The very last episode of “The Colbert Report,” which aired in December 2014, closed with the host launching into a rendition of “We’ll Meet Again,” accompanied by Randy Newman playing a grand piano. Shortly after Colbert launched into its opening lines, his longtime “Daily Show” colleague Jon Stewart joined him onstage.

Then the camera cut to Willie Nelson singing along beside Bryan Cranston, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Francis Collins, who was then the director of the National Institutes of Health. From there, the stage slowly filled with former guests, more than 100 in all. There were rock stars, politicians, authors and community advocates; here was Toby Keith and conservative tax reform lobbyist Grover Norquist, there was street artist Shepard Fairey and Big Bird. Smaug the dragon from “The Hobbit” made a special taped appearance, because why not?

And at the end of it all, Colbert flew off in Santa’s sleigh toting his prized Captain America shield, with unicorn Abraham Lincoln and “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, the man with all the answers. Bombastic yet intimate, fantastical yet sensible, Colbert’s farewell to his Comedy Central audience and his conservative........

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