After 33 years of serving up nightly laughs for the world, CBS’s The Late Show has aired its finale, with Stephen Colbert (The Daily Show, Strangers with Candy) gaining a standing ovation after his beginning monologue. Paramount announced earlier this year that the show was set to shutter due to purely financial decisions, blaming dropping ad revenues and the show losing $40 million a year.

During Colbert’s intro, in which he joked about Elvis using the bathroom in his studio and not dying, he pines over the great happiness that he has gained by hosting a staggering 1,800 episodes. He put himself in the seat with the audience as he claimed that he found it to be his job to feel the news with them. They booed after he mentioned it was the last show. Colbert then addressed exactly what his retirement may look like by saying, “Now, a lot of people been asking me what I plan to do after tonight, and the answer is drugs.”

“We call it the joy machine, because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears,” Colbert joked to his viewers. “And 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 pulled out all the stops for his farewell, even after claiming otherwise. Immediately after the introduction, fans were treated to a surprise cameo by none other than Bryan Cranston (Malcom in the Middle, Breaking Bad) dressed as a Late Show fan, even wearing a hat to prove it. Cranston asks if he could be Colbert’s final guest, but he politely declined. Paul Rudd also made a guest appearance to bring the late-night comic a retirement gift of bananas. The cameos begin fighting over who will be the final guest, with Colberts old friend Tim Medows telling him he got what he deserved by getting fired after he was denied the honor of being the last guest.

More old friends begin to work themselves into the finale as Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, Buried) make cameos. Notaro joked about the cultural significance of the event and likened it to the Obama inauguration and the moon landing. Reynolds also pleaded his case for being the final guest, although he was also denied.

In a final act of childish retribution against his employer, Colbert has the band play Linus and Lucy from the Peanuts animated special. This song has made headlines recently as the owners have filed major lawsuits looking to recoup lost royalties from those who illegally used their copyrighted materials. The move speaks to his brand of activism and looks to motivate his viewers to do the same. “Oh no, I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money,” Colbert stated as he knocked over the vases on his way out.

After a Pope Leo hoax guest appearance, Colbert introduces Paul McCartney as The Late Show’s final guest of all time. McCartney has been a staple for the Ed Sullivan Theater, spanning over six decades and being present for many iconic moments in American pop culture. Beginning with the British invasion, McCartney and the Beatles made their historic US television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in the theatre. Making tonight his 9^th visit to the studio, McCartney quipped about the legendary venue, “It’s like you say, I always remember the girls in the balcony.”

The two joked about the makeup process for the show and likened it to the alleged orange makeup that President Donald Trump uses. A final jab at his frequent public sparring partner over the years. Colbert built a brand on political satire at the President’s expense, with the President famously punching back at Colbert, saying he “absolutely loved that Colbert got fired.” He also joked that Colbert’s talent was less than his ratings and suggested that Jimmy Kimmel would be the next to be freed up for the summer. Although CBS claimed the cancellation of the show was monetary in nature, many critics claim the timing of the decision looked more like a capitulation to the administration as they look to get the approval of Trump-friendly FCC commissioner Brendan Carr for the Skydance merger.

However, the widely revered king of late-night, Greg Gutfeld (Greg Gutfeld’s What Did I Miss, Louie), fired back, claiming that Colbert’s brand of comedy is dying and out of touch. He went on to say that “I love that they claim it’s a financial reason…they didn’t cancel his show, they canceled the whole show. Imagine being such a bad chef they canceled food.” With Gutfeld! having almost double the nightly viewers in mid-2025, he may have a right to his opinion.