How Stephen Colbert signed off in final ‘Late Show’ episode

One last sign-off.

Stephen Colbert went out with a bang hosting his final episode of “The Late Show” Thursday night after CBS canceled the program last year

The host brought out multiple surprise guests including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro, Ryan Reynolds and more, all of whom thought they were going to be Colbert’s final guest.

During his final monologue, Colbert, 62, said goodbye to the live audience inside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City and fans watching at home.

“This show has been joy for us to do for you,” Colbert began, adding the show has been dubbed the “Joy Machine.”

“I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other, and how much we mean to each other,” Colbert added.

“We love doing the show for you, but what we really love, is doing the show with you.”

He then played a montage of other late night shows poking fun at Colbert and the show before the show’s iconic intro from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.

“We’ve had so much fun in this theater,” Colbert added, before showing a “first draft” of his goodbye card, where he asked “How do you start an OnlyFans?”

Colbert added they were planning on doing a big “special,” but he decided to do a regular episode instead, though he was interrupted by Bryan Cranston.

Colbert joked that celebrity cameos feel “kind of forced,” but Cranston suggested he could be the last guest, though Colbert said he already had a pretty special guest lined up, as he stormed off and threw his hat.

He continued to do a few more monologue bits before he was interrupted again by Paul Rudd, who said he has a poem he wanted to recite, but Colbert broke the news to him that he’s not the final guest.

Tim Meadows told Paul to accept the fact he would not be the final guest, assuming it would be him, since they went back to the Second City days years ago, as Meadows stormed off and took Rudd’s bananas.

After the monologue, he delivered a final installment of Meanwhile, breaking down more news stories about home distilling and a lawsuit involving Peanuts music.

His band – Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine – then proceeded to play some of the music, as Colbert joked, “I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money.”

Tig Notaro was spotted in the audience, stating she likes to be there during historic events, and she didn’t think she would be the final guest.

Ryan Reynolds then interrupted, believing he was going to be the final guest, but Colbert said he would not be, with Colbert revealing the “very special final guest” would be unveiled after the commercial.

The final guest supposed to have been none other than Pope Leo XIV, but a miscommunication on his “rider” lead to him cancelling the appearance.

Paul McCartney then gamely arrived and volunteered to be the final guest, saying he was running some “errands” and he brought him something.

Colbert then pulled out a framed, autographed photograph of The Beatles during their historic 1964 performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

“It’s fantastic to come back here. I always remember the girls in the balcony. Mr. Sullivan was really nice, a really good guy,” he said.

“People said this was the biggest show, but to tell you the truth, we had never heard of it,” he said, adding that the make-up girls made him “bright orange.”

When asked if they were pleased with how it went, McCartney said, “We’re live, and we sound good, man.”

He admitted, “We were a little bit nervous, but we were young kids and full of ourselves. You know, it was very exciting.”

It was their first ever visit to America, adding, “America is where all the music we loved came from, so that’s what we thought of America, the land of the free, the greatest democracy, that’s what it was, and hopefully still is.”

Before he was going to continue his interview with McCartney, a bizarre technical glitch occurred with a bizarre graphic appearing on the digital backdrop behind him.

McCarthy discussed his upcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which is set for release on May 29, inspired by his neighborhood growing up.

“One day, the boys, a couple of big strapping guys decided to mug me. I was little and scrawny and they were big and ugly and they wanted my watch. However, I reported them to the cops and I got my watch back,” McCartney said.

Colbert added he has a lot of superstitions before a show, with McCartney adding that he always has a “cheese and pickle sandwich” after a show, “accompanied by a margarita.”

McCartney admitted that fans often misinterpret his songs to him, adding, “‘Strawberry Fields,’ the beginning says, ‘Living is easy with the eyes closed,’” but some people think it’s “Living is easy with nince clothes.”

Colbert tried to continue with the interview when another glitch happened, as they pretended to take another commercial break as Colbert went to investigate the glitch.

He went backstage and found a huge green portal that started sucking objects into it, including his Apple watch, when Neil deGrasse Tyson arrived, saying it was an inter-dimensional wormhole.

He says that Colbert’s cancellation created a rift that could lead to the end of late night forever, though Colbert ended up pushing Tyson into the wormhole.

Colbert asked if there was a mentor figure around, which lead to Jon Stewart arriving, reading a statement from Paramount.

Stewart wondered if he might have been in denial about his cancellation, leading to a Colbert spit-take.

Colbert then said he loved Stewart and he did a spit-take in his face, when the rest of the late-night hosts arrived – Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver – who had some words of wisdom to help Colbert process the end of his beloved late-night talk show.

Colbert returned and told some more jokes before the green wormhole arrived again, sucking up everything and everyone from the theater, with Colbert throwing it to commercial before he disappeared.

Colbert was seen in a desolate, echo-y space, where he started singing “Jump Up” by Elvis Costello, joined by his bandleader Louis Gato, Jon Batiste and Costello himself.

They cut back to the studio with McCartney, Costello, Batiste and Colbert singing The Beatles classic “Hello, Goodbye” with his full house band.

Colbert’s family took to the stage with his full staff, as they clapped along with the song, filling up the balcony above and the full stage.

Colbert then snuck away to pull the breaker for the studio, instead giving the honors to McCartney, and when he did, the green wormhole returned, sucking the entire Ed Sullivan Theater into it, producing a tiny snow globe with the theater inside, as the final episode came to a close.

Colbert took over “The Late Show” in 2015 from David Letterman, who retired after more than 20 years. George Clooney was Colbert’s first guest.

Letterman, 79, returned to the show last week and unloaded on CBS for axing the series. He and Colbert also joined forces for a segment where they tossed furniture off the roof of the Manhattan theater.

In addition to Letterman, Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, Barack Obama and Christopher Nolan stopped by the “Late Show” for Colbert’s final episodes.

Colbert announced the end of his late-night show after nearly 33 years in July 2025, telling viewers that he found out about the decision the previous evening.

“I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” he told the audience.

At the time, CBS claimed they canceled the series as a “purely financial decision” and “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” 

Before the cancellation news, Colbert criticized CBS’s parent company, Paramount, regarding its $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a controversial “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris ahead of the Skydance Media-Paramount merger.

During one of his July 2025 monologues, Colbert said, “As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company.”

“But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help,” he jokingly added.

Before hosting his final show, Colbert admitted to People he thinks the cancellation “saved [his] life.”

“It takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do,” he shared.

Colbert also said he’s looking forward to being an empty nester with wife Evelyn McGee Colbert, with whom he shares adult children Madeleine, 31, Peter, 28, and John, 24.

As for his next projects, Colbert has been tapped to write an upcoming “Lord of the Rings” film with son Peter — but he told People he’s still plotting his future.

“So I don’t have much better of an answer than most college seniors do, which is I’ve got to finish this first, because it takes almost the entirety of my brain to do this show,” he said.

“So we’ll land this plane and we’ll check out the view from there.”