Sir Paul McCartney lent Stephen Colbert a hand in delivering the perfect goodbye for the late-night host’s final taping of The Late Show.
The legendary Beatles singer performed a powerful rendition of “Hello, Goodbye,” supported by Colbert’s band leader, Louis Cato, former band leader Jon Batiste, singer Elvis Costello, and Colbert himself.
The musical performance concluded with the entire staff of The Late Show joining the musicians on stage for a sing-along.
The show’s 11-year run ended with Colbert and McCartney pulling a lever to turn off the bright lights of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, where the show has been held since David Letterman’s run in 1993. The skit concluded with the theater shrinking into the confines of a snowglobe.
McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater, reminiscing with Colbert about the Beatles’ American debut at the venue in 1964. The performance was said to mark a turning point for the English band on the global stage. A reported 73 million viewers tuned in.
During a conversation with the Colbert, the singer gifted the TV anchor with a framed, signed photo of the band playing on that very stage decades ago. “Wow,” Colbert responded, pretending to read a caption from the frame. “To Stephen, you’re better than The Beatles, Paul McCartney.”
Colbert’s run at the late-night show ended last night after 11 seasons.
Before the episode, the TV veteran addressed his live audience and viewers at home, delivering an emotional tribute. “We call this show the Joy Machine,” he said. “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.
“Now, on night one of the Colbert Report, back in the day, I said, ‘Anyone can read the news to you. I promised to feel the news at you’, and I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news with you, and I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it.
“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 said to cheers from the audience.
CBS canceled the show just days after Colbert suggested that Paramount, his network’s parent company, settling with Trump for $16 million was a “big, fat bribe.”
The decision by CBS was described as purely financial, but the network received fierce backlash from critics who perceived Colbert’s cancellation as kowtowing to the Trump administration.
Trump himself relished in Colbert’s final episode. The 79-year-old president has been a staunch enemy of late-night TV and its hosts throughout his presidency. Hours after Colbert’s final episode aired, Trump posted an angry message on Truth Social, writing, “Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”
The TV host has been a fixture of late-night television for over 20 years. Prior to his run on CBS, Colbert hosted The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.
Fellow TV hosts and media personalities, including Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Jon Stewart, and Colbert’s prominent late-night peers, have rolled out support for him in the final days of The Late Show. Nearly a dozen A-Listers came together for a tribute to Colbert, posted by the Committee for the First Amendment on Instagram, in which they applauded the host for holding power to account and thanked him for his years of informing the public.
