Stephen Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show will air May 21 after 10 seasons on CBS.
Colbert, 61, revealed the news while he was appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers Monday in a clip published on the show’s Instagram: ‘It feels real now … it did not feel … I mean, I know it was real, but now, there’s four months left.’
The latest update comes more than six months after CBS and Paramount canceled The Late Show last summer after 10 seasons, citing declining late night revenues.
Some said the decision was politically-motivated to appease one of Colbert’s most powerful critics: President Donald Trump.
The Washington, D.C.-born entertainer said he would miss calling home the iconic New York City venue where he filmed the show from, which he inherited from previous CBS late night lead David Letterman.
He said, ‘Listen, you can do comedy in a lot of different places – there’s no place like the Ed Sullivan Theater.’
Stephen Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show will air May 21 after 10 seasons on CBS. Pictured in November
Some said the decision to cancel the show was politically-motivated to appease one of Colbert’s most powerful critics: President Donald Trump. Pictured January 21 in Davos
Colbert praised his staff as a key aspect of the show he would miss when it wraps up in four months.
‘It’s really the people: That’s really what I care about,’ Colbert said. ‘That’s really what I’m going to miss more than anything.’
Colbert’s cancellation after a 10-season run drummed up considerable controversy.
Some said it was just business as usual, and that the host’s left-leaning politics alienated a significant chunk of potential audience.
Others said that Colbert was clearly a political martyr amid the changing times under Trump, who praised the network’s decision to let go of Colbert, a long-running critic of his.
At the time, Colbert delivered an emotional statement to his studio audience about his imminent departure from CBS’ late night airwaves, as the network was pivoting to a different strategy in the time slot.
‘Before we start the show, I want you to know something that I found out just last night,’ Colbert said July 17. ‘Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending The Late Show in May.’
‘It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.’
The latest update comes more than six months after CBS and Paramount canceled The Late Show last summer after 10 seasons, citing declining late night revenues. Colbert pictured in NYC last month
The Washington, D.C.-born entertainer said he would miss calling home the iconic New York City venue where he filmed the show from
Emmy-winning actress Sandra Oh, 54, garnered controversy after making a number of strong comments on the July 22 edition of The Late Show, with one prominent CBS commentator saying her sentiments were misguided.
‘Like probably everyone here and everyone who is so supportive outside wants to say that I am so sorry and saddened and properly outraged for the cancellation of late-night here,’ Oh said.
Oh, a two-time Golden Globe winner, said that the decision made on the corporate level – which many say had political undertones – was a game-changer for standards in the U.S. amid Trump’s second term.
‘Not only for yourself and for this entire family who are here, but for what it means, of what it means where we are in our culture and what it means for free speech,’ said the Sideways actress.
‘So I just want to say, sorry, and also if I can have your hand,’ she told the host, ‘to CBS and Paramount – a plague on both of your houses.’
Colbert said he was ‘very grateful’ as he wagged his finger, adding, ‘I think they’ve been great partners.’
Tony Dokoupil of CBS Mornings subsequently said Oh had things pegged wrong in blaming Colbert’s show ending on politics, amid a changing economic landscape in late night TV – and culture.
‘The business is broken,’ Dokoupil said. ‘And what no one seems to acknowledge is that the politics also changed.
Tony Dokoupil of CBS Mornings said Oh had things pegged wrong in blaming Colbert’s show ending on politics, amid a changing economic landscape in late night TV – and culture
‘The business changed and so did the politics, and it got way more one-sided than anything Johnny Carson was ever doing.’ (Carson, who died in 2005, famously was one to steer clear of going too far left or right so as not to put off a chunk of his audience.)
Dokoupil added, ‘I think we should reflect on those changes as well – it’s been a big shift culturally in that regard also.’
The move to ax Colbert was a controversial one within some circles of Hollywood, as the late night host has received words of public support from the genre’s elder statesman, Letterman.
Also critical was the former host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, who said Colbert was cancelled to grease through the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media.
The huge business transaction needed to be OK’ed by the Federal Communications Commission under Trump’s administration, and it was after The Late Show was cancelled.
Emmy-winning actress Sandra Oh, 54, garnered controversy on the July 22 edition of The Late Show in saying, ‘To CBS and Paramount – a plague on both of your houses!’
‘The shows that you now seek to cancel, censor and control, a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those f***ing shows,’ Stewart said.
Dokoupil said that while he understood ‘the emotional views’ Stewart expressed, they weren’t square with good business tactics.
‘I don’t have an MBA but he’s not right that the merger, the $8 billion, is based on reruns of a comedy show, no,’ he said. ‘People are buying the movies and the sitcoms and the sports.
‘They’re not based on reruns of [CBS Mornings] either, so I think it’s wrong.’
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