Anyone expecting Stephen Colbert to go out all guns blazing will have been left disappointed by the last ever episode of The Late Show. There were no broadsides at the network that canceled him, or at the president who cheered on his downfall. After 33 years on air, 11 with Colbert at the helm, America’s most popular late night show took its final bow on CBS without a single utterance of the name “Trump”. In the end, Colbert chose to bow out with a joyful song on his lips, and a message of gratitude.The 62-year-old made sure to lower expectations for any sort of epic finale early in the slightly extended show. “At first, when we knew this was gonna be our last night, we were planning on doing a huge special this evening,” he told his audience. “But the thing is, we like to think every episode of The Late Show is kind of special.”What followed was what he called a “regular episode” so yes, there were a handful of brief celebrity cameos from the likes of Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds, but there were also run-of-the-mill gags about sink holes in New York and dancing robots falling over. Rumors that the deeply Catholic host might have managed to land the final guest he recently called his “white whale”, Pope Leo XIV, were made light of with a playful skit about the Pope refusing to leave his dressing room because of the inadequate hot dogs on his rider. After much build-up, Colbert’s mysterious final guest turned out to be Paul McCartney. While the Beatle obviously has a historic link to the Late Show’s Ed Sullivan Theater, having first performed there as a mop-topped 21-year-old in 1964, his appearance just five days after playing the season finale of Saturday Night Live couldn’t help but feel a little anticlimactic. The 83-year-old wheeled out a few old Beatles stories, plugged his new album, and lured Colbert into the closest he came to directly acknowledging Trump all night. Telling the tale of that storied Ed Sullivan Show performance, McCartney reminisced that “the girls put make-up on us and it was, like, bright orange.” A smile played around Colbert’s lips as he replied: “That’s very popular in certain circles these days,” to the sound of laughter and jeers.Paul McCartney talking to Stephen Colbert on the final episode of 'The Late Show' (Scott Kowalchyk /CBS)Whether the host liked it or not, the now late Late Show became unavoidably entwined with Trump’s presidency. When Colbert first took over from David Letterman behind the talk show’s famous desk on September 8, 2015, it was only a handful of months after Trump had descended his golden escalator and declared his intention to run for the presidency. Colbert peppered his very first monologue with snipes at the Apprentice host who was still widely considered a joke candidate. Referring to Trump’s support from white supremacists, Colbert cracked: “Amazing, because Trump’s not even White, he’s more Oompa-Loompa-merican.” In reference to his guest, Florida governor and presidential candidate Jeb Bush, he joked: “You would think that much exposure to oranges and crazy people would have prepared him for Donald Trump.”Just two weeks later, Colbert even had Trump on the show. He opened their interview by apologizing for all the mean things he’d said about him, and asking Trump if there was anyone he’d like to say sorry to. “Ah, no,” he responded without hesitation. Later, Colbert told him: “I want to thank you not only for being here, but I want to thank you for running for president because I’m not going to say this stuff writes itself, but you certainly do deliver it on time every day.” It was funny at the time, but Trump got the last laugh. He was elected president of the United States a little over a year later.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Stephen Colbert delivering his final ‘The Late Show’ monologue on Thursday May 21, 2026 (Scott Kowalchyk /CBS)In the early days of his time on the Late Show, Colbert generally steered away from political comedy. He’d made his name first as a correspondent on The Daily Show and then with his own satire of right-wing political pundits The Colbert Report, on which he’d introduced the concept of “truthiness” to the American political lexicon. The Late Show was his chance to reinvent himself, without the mask of the conservative blowhard he’d played on Comedy Central, and he took the opportunity to present himself as an entertainer and comedian in the old-school tradition of late night: elegant, sophisticated and even-handed.At the time, The Late Show on CBS was locked in a ratings battle with Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show on NBC. However, after Trump was elected Colbert found that every time he ranted about the new president, his ratings soared. The received wisdom had been that late night hosts should avoid partisan politics, out of a fear of halving their audience. What Colbert found was that in an already divided America, it paid to be polarizing. Colbert made The Late Show the most-watched late night show in America for the past nine consecutive years, winning an Emmy in the process and pulling in an average audience of 2.7 million viewers. Given the myriad changes to viewing habits in the past decade, that is impressively close to the 2.8 million who were tuning in to Letterman’s final season in 2014.Those ratings, of course, were not enough to save the show. When CBS announced last year that they were shuttering The Late Show, just days after Colbert had accused parent company Paramount of paying Trump a “big fat bribe,” you could find few in the industry who believed the decision was purely “financial” as the company claimed. CBS staffers told The Independent at the time that it was a continuation of the “Trump shakedown”. Hours after last night’s final episode aired, Trump took to social media to crow: “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!”Stephen Colbert waves to the audience in New York's Ed Sullivan Theater during the final episode of 'The Late Show' (Scott Kowalchyk /CBS)Faced with opposition like that, Colbert should be applauded for choosing to take the high road. He scattered a few digs at CBS throughout his send-off, from a gaggle of dolphins sarcastically declaring: “It was purely a financial decision!” to a gag about his house band playing the score from Peanuts during a story about the music’s litigious rights owner: “I sure hope this doesn't cost CBS any money!”Ultimately, though, Colbert decided not to end his time with bitterness and anger. Instead, the episode built to a chaotic skit about an intergalactic wormhole swallowing the Ed Sullivan Theater whole. “I didn’t think my show would end like this,” Colbert told Jon Stewart, spelling out his message. “But still, grateful.”He brought the curtain down not with polemic, but with music. First he was joined by Elvis Costello for a lovely version of his 1977 song “Jump Up”, clearly a Colbert favourite, and finally a big, joyful performance of “Hello, Goodbye” with McCartney, just before the Beatle was invited to turn off the lights for good.If Colbert had gone out railing against the forces that pushed him off the air, it might have felt like a punchier, more headline-grabbing ending. Instead, he offered us something more in keeping with his own character. Back in 2022, Colbert was asked on air by the pop star Dua Lipa how his religious belief had influenced the way he made the show. He gave a long and eloquent answer that concluded with this: “If there’s some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it’s that no matter what happens you are never defeated, you must understand and see this in the light of eternity and find some way to love and laugh with each other.” On the last night of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert chose the graceful way out.