The final episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” airs tonight, Thursday, May 21 at 11:35pm Eastern Time. On CBS.
The word “Late” has a number of meanings, of course.
It can refer to a certain time of day. 11:35pm certainly qualifies as “Late”. This meaning has a negative connotation for some folks, but for those of us who suffer from insomnia, a “Late Show” is much appreciated.
“Late” can also mean something that occurs or arrives later than originally scheduled or expected. Like, “The incoming flight was late, so I missed my connection.” Again, this might be seen as something unfortunate, unless you met someone really cute and interesting while waiting to get booked on a later flight.
Finally, “Late” can refer to someone who has died. “My late grandfather…” for instance.
That third meaning will be applied appropriately to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in the coming days.
In July 2025, CBS announced it would not renew “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Paramount, the parent company of CBS, told us that canceling “The Late Show” was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night” and was “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount.” The “other matters” include the uncomfortable fact that, in July 2025, Paramount was attempting to merge with Skydance Media and needed the Trump administration to approve the merger.
The subsequent approval of the merger was in no way related, obviously, the the “Late Show” cancellation. Paramount made that clear.
So what’s a late night comedic host to do? Well, you could invite the previous host of the “Late Night” show — David Letterman — to join you atop the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and throw furniture belonging to CBS off the roof, and try to hit a “target”, on the sidewalk below, that looks suspiciously like the CBS logo. The target could be full of brightly colored plastic balls, to make a “hit” more exciting.
You could also toss a ‘wedding cake’, celebrating the 33 years of CBS “Late Night” shows, onto the street below.
To dramatic effect.
Finally, you could shake hands with Mr. Letterman and ask if he has any words of wisdom to share with the “Late Show” audience.
Mr. Letterman could look into the camera and say: “Well, not necessarily to the audience, but to the folks at CBS…”
He could then address the CBS folks by paraphrasing the words used by a controversial CBS newscaster, the late Edward R. Murrow, at the conclusion of each of Murrow’s newscasts.
“Good night and good luck… motherfuckers.”
You can watch this celebration of destruction in the 5-minute video clip below.
We should note that this roof-top event was conducted with the full cooperation of CBS… filmed by the CBS camera crew, and shared by CBS on their “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” YouTube channel.
Maybe that’s the least CBS could do, when cancelling the most popular late night talk show on television. I mean, the destruction of a few pieces of office furniture and a wedding cake, shared out to 10 million YouTube followers? That’s just the cost of entertainment.
Back in the 1970s, my family often watched the news, and other types of entertainment, on CBS, but most of the shows steered clear of actually informing us about what was happening in America. Edward R. Murrow had noticed this tendency during a 1958 speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association.
During the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: ‘Look now, pay later’.
We’re still looking, and still paying. Mostly, we’re looking at streaming content, for free, on YouTube and TikTok and social media in general, or through streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Good night. And good luck.
Louis Cannon
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.
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