Stephen Colbert’s 11-year run as host of “The Late Show” will end on May 21. That its untimely end was announced mere weeks before the Trump-loyalist Ellison family finalized their CBS-Paramount takeover led many to believe it was a move to appease Trump, while the network claimed Colbert’s late-night program was losing around $40 million a year — a figure that led friendly rival Jimmy Kimmel to quip, “Not a snowball’s chance in hell that’s accurate.”
President Trump was positively giddy over Colbert’s ouster, lending even more credence to the aforementioned theory, posting to Truth Social, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
Well, whatever the reason, Colbert is out in a week. And so, for his final weeks, the funnyman has welcomed an assortment of friends and A-listers, from his fellow late-night hosts Kimmel, Oliver, Meyers, and Fallon, to the likes of Tom Hanks, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and former president Barack Obama. And on Thursday night, Colbert welcomed his “Late Show” predecessor, the great David Letterman, whose big, bushy beard now resembles Joaquin Phoenix’s during his infamous performance art stunt on his show.
