Paul McCartney helps Stephen Colbert say goodbye to 'The Late Show' in ambitious final show

Paul McCartney and Stephen Colbert on the CBS series The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network, May 21, 2026. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Stephen Colbert chatted with Paul McCartney and joined him on stage for a raucous performance of “Hello, Goodbye” on the final broadcast of CBS’ “The Late Show” on Thursday night, a bittersweet farewell for a cancelled show that still had a few barbs left for the network that ended its 33-year run.

At the top of his last show, which grew more surreal and absurd as it went on, Colbert highlighted the “joy” that he and his team felt creating more than 1,800 episodes of “The Late Show.”

“The energy that you’ve given us, we sincerely need that to have done the best possible show we could have for you for the last 11 years,” Colbert said. “You’ve given it to us. We’ve given it all right back to you.”

Colbert pretended that Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pope, was his final guest, but the pontiff refused to come out of his dressing room because he hadn’t been supplied the correct kind of snacks, especially hot dogs.

McCartney then offered himself as a replacement, striding across the stage as the audience screamed. “I think you’d be a perfect last guest,” Colbert said.

McCartney said he happened to be in the area, doing errands. He offered a framed photo of the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Theater, the final home for “The Late Show.” The two chatted about when the Beatles first came to America in 1964, creativity, his new album and McCartney’s childhood.

Final broadcast is filled with surprises

Colbert’s monologue was interrupted by Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, who all pretended to be irked that they weren’t the host’s final guest. “You know what? You got what you deserved,” Meadows fumed. Other celebrities in the audience who had funny turns during Colbert’s last “Meanwhile” segment were Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds.

Later, Colbert joined Elvis Costello, former bandleader Jon Batiste and current bandleader Louis Cato for a relaxed performance of Costello’s “Jump Up.” They all joined the house band and McCartney for the final song of the night, a performance of “Hello, Goodbye.”

Staffers and audience members — including Colbert’s wife, Evie McGee Colbert — then swarmed the stage as Colbert gave the honor to McCartney to turn off the building’s power. The theater then gets sucked into a vortex and turns into a snow globe.

Guests in the final week included Michael Keaton, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen, while there’s been a wacky version of “It’s Raining Men” remade into “It’s Raining Fish.”

On Wednesday night, Colbert was on the other end of his “The Colbert Questionnaire,” asked things like which sandwich is best and whether apples are better than oranges. Mark Hamill, Martha Stewart, Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro were some of the questioners.

David Letterman, the show’s host when it debuted in 1993, joined Colbert on the roof of the theater to hurl furniture from the set — a nod to one of Letterman’s classic stunts.

Colbert’s show ends after 11 seasons

CBS announced last summer that Colbert’s show would end, citing economic reasons after 11 seasons. But Colbert was the ratings leader in late-night TV. Many — including Colbert — expressed skepticism that President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism of the show wasn’t a factor. Trump’s name on Thursday never came up.

The decision to shutter the show came after parent company Paramount’s US$16 million settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview as Paramount awaited his administration’s approval of a pending sale to Skydance Media. Colbert had called it a “big fat bribe.” On Thursday, he showed a clip of a sympathetic dolphin clicking with the subtitle: “It was a financial decision.”

During the “Meanwhile” segment, Colbert mentioned that the owner of some music used in the “Peanuts” animated specials had grown litigious. Just then, the band started playing “Peanuts” music. “Oh, no, I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money,” the host said.

The final show seemed to be marred by technical snafus, with stray sounds and glitches. Later Colbert encountered the reason in a pretaped bit — an interdimensional wormhole that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson helpfully explained was opened because a top rated show could also been cancelled.

Jon Stewart also made an appearance, explaining the wormhole was a metaphor, and Colbert reunited with his fellow late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver and Seth Meyers. Elijah Woods was present for a “The Lord of the Rings” joke.

Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon ran reruns on Thursday

Colbert’s chief rivals, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” both ran reruns on Thursday. Kimmel urged viewers to tune into Colbert’s goodbye and then stop watching CBS.

CBS will fill “The Late Show” slot with “Comics Unleashed,” in which comedians share stories. Host Byron Allen has vowed to avoid politics.

Colbert’s goodbye — running some 17 minutes over — was ambitious in a way that other TV late night finales were not. Johnny Carson wrapped up his stint on “The Tonight Show” in 1992 without any celebrity guests, just offering classic clips. Jay Leno had Billy Crystal and Garth Brooks aboard his final goodbye in 2014. Celebrities like Steve Martin, Chris Rock and Tina Fey participated in David Letterman’s last Top 10 list for a 2015 finale that also included Foo Fighters playing “Everlong.”

Colbert’s 11 seasons bridged the rise of Trump and his return to the White House, the pandemic, the fall of Joe Biden, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States Capitol under attack in 2021 and the rise of Artificial Intelligence.

“At a time when algorithms are shaping so much of what people see, hear and even believe, Stephen has been a touchstone shared by millions,” former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a video tribute. “His satiric voice, backed by what is clearly a deep moral core and a love of this country, has had a way of cutting through the noise and helping show us who we are as a country.”

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press