Overview
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which airs its finale Thursday, May 21, ends an 11‑season run and closes CBS’s 33‑year late‑night franchise.
- CBS will replace the 11:35 p.m. hour with Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed in a time‑buy deal in which Allen pays for the slot and keeps the ad sales.
- In a People interview published Tuesday, Colbert said CBS may have “saved my life,” describing the nightly grind as draining and vowing to keep commenting on politics at a different pace.
- The company maintains the cancellation was a financial decision, but its announcement days after Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump fueled ongoing claims of political pressure, with Trump gloating online and FCC official Brendan Carr touting the exit in public remarks.
- Colbert’s final week features Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen, capping a farewell from the Ed Sullivan Theater that doubles as a marker of late night’s shift toward clips and platform viewing over a nightly broadcast ritual.