Donald Trump wants the final word as his nemesis Stephen Colbert says goodbye to The Late Show.
Colbert, 62, wraps up his 11-year run on the CBS late-night show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, on Thursday, May 21, following CBS’ July cancellation, attributed to financial reasons. The network promises the “extended” finale to run beyond the usual one-hour slot. The exact length of the episode and the names of its guests have yet to be announced.
Trump is also keeping things vague. After he was asked if he had any comments for Colbert ahead of the finale, Trump gave a cryptic reply. Meanwhile, Colbert has remained optimistic about the future and has even wondered if the late-night talk show’s cancellation has “saved his life.”
“I’ll have a message at a later date,” the 79-year-old president told reporters after being asked about the late-night talk show host on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, May 20.
CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show in July last year, three days after Colbert publicly criticized Paramount, the network’s parent company, over its $16 million settlement with the president stemming from a lawsuit related to a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: it’s big, fat bribe,” Colbert said on his show.
CBS said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision” and unrelated to The Late Show’s performance or content. The show debuted in 1993, with David Letterman serving as host until Colbert took over in 2015.
Ahead of the finale, Colbert spoke to People about speculation on the politics behind his show’s cancellation. He said he had “no fear” of the Trump administration.
He added, “I mean, how silly would it be? The ending of the show aside, which people can speculate about all they want, and I can’t argue with their speculations, but we’re clowns.
“How much does it diminish the office of the Presidency to even notice what we say?”
Trump has attacked Colbert several times. After CBS axed the show last year, Trump weighed in on Truth Social, sharing a scathing message to the host.
The president wrote, “Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night. That is not true!
“The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!”
In 2024, Trump called Colbert a “complete and total loser,” saying “CBS should terminate his contract and pick almost anyone, right off the street, who would do better, and for FAR LESS MONEY.”
He claimed Colbert was “not funny…not wise” and “VERY BORING” and that his show was “dying from a complete lack of viewers.”
Meanwhile, Colbert’s fellow late-night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, who has also been attacked by Trump over the years, addressed the final episode of The Late Show during his Wednesday monologue.
“I think you know how I feel about the fact that [the crew of The Late Show] are being pushed out,” Kimmel said. “I hope the people who did the pushing feel ashamed of themselves tonight, although I know they probably won’t.”
Ahead of The Late Show’s finale, Colbert reflected on his time as host while maintaining an optimistic outlook, suggesting the show’s ending could be a blessing in disguise.
When Colbert received word of the cancellation from his manager, he was reclining with a sock covering his eyes, preparing himself before the show.
He told People, “I sat up, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m awake. Could you say that one more time?'” Months later, Colbert has accepted the cancellation and his tenure as host.
“I tried never to take for granted filming in the Ed Sullivan Broadway theater, having that tremendous audience, or having the ability to work with the funniest people I know every day and make jokes about the things that make me most anxious,” he said.
He pondered whether CBS “saved my life” because “it takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do.”
Colbert has become an empty nester, as his three grown children — Madeleine, 30, Peter, 28, and John, 24, whom he shares with his wife of 32 years, Evelyn McGee Colbert — have all left home.
“The show’s like a flaming toboggan ride every day and the trick is to not hit any trees on your way down the mountain before 12:30,” he told People in early April.
He elaborated, “There’s so much to think about to do the show. So I don’t have much better of an answer than most college seniors do, which is I’ve got to finish this first, because it takes almost the entirety of my brain to do this show.”
“So we’ll land this plane and we’ll check out the view from there.” Colbert added, laughing, “But I’m available. Yes.”
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