Like other checks and balances on presidential power, late-night talk shows — once ratings juggernauts, woven into the fabric of American culture — are being stress-tested. Orange make-up jokes alone won't be enough to save them.

Stephen Colbert is going out with a smile, and with many jokes at CBS and its parent company Paramount’s expense.

As Stephen Colbert signs off May 21, his exit closes a 33-year CBS franchise—and marks the end of one late-night era built on ritual, the desk and the band