Everything That Happened on the Final Late Show With Stephen Colbert

Plans for the finale episode were kept secret until airtime. The show used reruns from other late-night programs to keep audiences focused. Colbert delivered a pre-taping message to the studio audience, thanking them for years of happiness and describing the show as a “joy machine.” Bandleader Louis Cato characterized the audience-performer connection as a reciprocal emotional relationship. The cold open featured a supercut of late-night hosts from today and the past, including Ed Sullivan, with comedic banter about Colbert. The finale also included special cameos from friends such as Tig Notaro, Louis Cato, and a guest from Liverpool.

"The Late Show YouTube channel posted Colbert's address to the studio audience before the show thanking them for years of happiness. "This show has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show the joy machine ... To do this many shows, it has to be a machine," he said. "If you choose to do this with joy, it doesn't hurt your fingers as much when your fingers get caught in the gears." Bandleader Louis Cato went so far as to say the audience-performer vibe is a "reciprocal emotional relationship." Sweet! "Parasocial" found dead in a ditch."

"For live-TV watchers, he also had a message for the local CBS affiliates, thanking them for being a great lead-in. That's classy. Colbert Was Welcomed Into Talk-Show Heaven by His Peers The episode's cold open was a supercut of almost all the late-night hosts of today and yesterday (whither Jason Kelce, Busy Philipps, and Taylor Tomlinson?). Ed Sullivan was also there, despite being a prime-time guy."

"The other 11:35 p.m. late-night shows aired reruns during the time slot so that Colbert would have audiences' undivided attention. And Colbert made the most of it, bringing on special cameos from pals like Tig Notaro, his original bandleader, and a certain lad from Liverpool. Here's everything that happened on the last Late Show."

"Up until air time, the crew of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert kept their plans for the finale episode under wraps. We'd already had a cavalcade of Stephen Colbert's favorite guests, he'd taken his own "Questionert," and he danced with David Byrne - sporting moves I can only describe as Noblet-esque. He'd thrown stuff off the Ed Sullivan roof with David Letterman the week before. What was left to do?"

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