FOLLOW US

The final days of one of America’s most influential late-night institutions are unfolding in a wave of celebrity tributes, political controversy, and growing suspicion over how a 33-year television legacy is ending. As CBS prepares to shut down “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the mood inside Hollywood and Washington is shifting from nostalgia to concern, with questions lingering about money, power, and political pressure.

A Hollywood Farewell Turns Into a Cultural Moment

What should have been a standard television goodbye has instead become a high-profile cultural event.

Hugh Jackman sang a parody of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. Bette Midler performed a satirical rewrite of Wind Beneath My Wings. John Lithgow wrote and recited a poem entitled The Mighty Colbert. Jake Tapper hand-delivered a painting of Colbert as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. And Jimmy Fallon offered a pointed take on Frank Sinatra’s My Way: “And now the end is near / And so you face the final curtain / But Trump, he made it clear / He wants you gone / Of that we’re certain.”

These tributes have turned the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York into a stage for farewell performances that feel larger than television itself. A growing list of celebrities has made pilgrimages to honor Colbert and what many see as the end of a defining era in American satire.

The Late Show’s final broadcast is set for May 21, closing the curtain on a program that has shaped national conversation for decades.

A Host Who Became a Cultural Antidote

For many viewers, Stephen Colbert, 62, was more than a comedian.

Colbert, 62, has provided a nightly antidote for millions of viewers feeling discombobulated at the end of another day in Donald Trump’s dystopia. He cut through the malign chaos to reassure them that no, it was not them going mad but the world around them. And he offered a contrast in character: where Trump is vainglorious, Colbert is irreverent; where Trump is narcissistic, Colbert exudes empathy; where Trump is indecent, Colbert manifests decency to the core.

That role turned The Late Show into a nightly ritual for audiences looking for clarity, humor, and reassurance in a turbulent political era.

Suspicion Surrounds CBS Cancellation Decision

When CBS announced last July that the Late Show would be cancelled, ending a 33-year television institution hosted first by David Letterman then Colbert, many found the timing suspicious.

The move came just three days after Colbert used his monologue to ruthlessly mock a $16m legal settlement between CBS’s parent company Paramount and Trump – and just a week before Paramount’s $8bn merger with Skydance was approved by federal regulators.

CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night”. But not everyone accepts that explanation.

Letterman, for one, isn’t buying it. “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying,” he told the New York Times earlier this month. “They’re lying weasels.”