Stephen Colbert on Thursday delivered his final “Late Show” monologue.
Or at least, he tried to.
As he spoke, he was repeatedly interrupted by celebrities sitting in his audience, each of whom thought they would have the honor of being his last guest.
Spoiler alert: None of them made the cut.
Actor Bryan Cranston popped up in the audience wearing a “Late Show” hat to ask if there might be “a surprise celebrity cameo popping up out of nowhere.”
“No, Bryan, those always feel kind of forced,” Colbert replied.
“Absolutely, yeah, totally, that’s a very cheap stunt,” Cranston agreed. “But hey, I’m here. Maybe I could be your last guest.”
When Colbert said he already had a “pretty special” show lined up, Cranston lost his cool.
“What the hell am I here for?” he asked. “You know what, you can keep your stupid hat. I’m gonna go sell my ticket.”
Then, he tossed the hat and stormed off.
Not long after, actor Paul Rudd appeared to ask if he would have time to read his poem during the final interview.
“You wrote a poem about me?” Colbert asked.
“I wrote a poem,” Rudd corrected.
He, in turn, was interrupted by actor/comedian Tim Meadows, who insisted he would actually be Colbert’s last guest so they could reminisce about their time at Second City together.
“It’s not you either, Tim,” Colbert said.
“Screw you, Colbert!” Meadows shot back. “You know what? You got what you deserve!”
When Colbert returned from break, comedian Tig Notaro and actor Ryan Reynolds also made humorous interruptions.
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CBS announced the end of the “Late Show” last July, sending shockwaves through the industry, given that Colbert had been consistently number one in his time slot for years.
The network insisted that the move was “purely a financial decision” as the show had been losing millions. However, that decision also came after President Donald Trump repeatedly demanded that CBS cancel the program, and just as corporate parent Paramount was seeking FCC approval to complete a massive merger.
At the time, Trump celebrated the show’s demise and warned that others ― such as Jimmy Kimmel ― would be next.
Kimmel was briefly taken off the air a few months later due to a joke he made about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, but he was put back on TV after viewers began canceling their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest.
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