Stephen Colbert’s Final Late Night Confirmed: Date, Time, and What You Can’t Miss
Stephen Colbert takes his Late Show bow this week with a star-packed sprint — when to watch, who’s dropping by, and what CBS does next.
Stephen Colbert spent years turning the Ed Sullivan Theater into America’s nightly group chat: sharp politics, theater-kid chaos, and a dash of Catholic guilt, all in one impeccably cut suit. Now the cue cards are thinning out, the band’s cases are snapped shut, and CBS is calling time on a late night era that actually mattered.
The last episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert lands this week, and the whole late night universe suddenly feels like the closing battle of a very long movie franchise — the kind where you remember when Newt Gingrich was a monologue staple. As Colbert’s farewell week kicked off, the other shows didn’t snipe from the sidelines; they rallied, the way comedy folks do when it ’s the final slice of pizza and nobody wants to go home.
How to watch the final Late Show
- Date and time: Thursday, May 21, 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on CBS
- Streaming: Paramount+ Premium can stream it live; Paramount+ Essential gets it the next day
- Guests: Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg
- Music: David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen handling the goodbye tunes
That lineup reads like a late night hall of fame: Stewart back on Colbert’s turf, Spielberg popping in to class up the joint, and Byrne and Springsteen sending the band off with big, unmistakable energy. It’s a neat full-circle thing for a show that mixed Broadway brain, political whiplash, and sincere weirdness better than anyone else in the slot.
So yes, CBS is dimming the lights on a run that helped redefine what 11:35 could be. If you’ve been along for the ride — or if you just want to see who shows up when a giant of the format takes a bow — this is the one to watch live.