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As Stephen Colbert was setting up a bit on his final episode of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d Thursday night, he inadvertently explained why his canceled CBS program became so unbelievably off-putting and tedious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought the best way to celebrate what we\u2019ve done over the last 11 years is to do a regular episode where I come out here and talk about the national conversation,\u201d Colbert said.<\/p>\n
Are there any two less entertaining words in the lexicon than \u201cnational conversation\u201d? Calculus lecture, perhaps? Rock tumbler, maybe?<\/p>\nThe final episode of Stephen Colbert\u2019s \u201cThe Late Show\u201d aired Thursday night. CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe gag was that the fired host then got interrupted by a bunch of celebs pals including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds, all of whom were vying to be his last guest. Not exactly top-drawer stuff.<\/p>\n
Nothing, save for a performance of \u201cHello, Goodbye\u201d by the great Paul McCartney, was memorable. It was indeed a regular episode in that most of the jokes were clunkers.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohnny Oleksinski<\/span>But as CBS put the nail in the coffin, Stephen hit the nail on the head. His series could have 100% been titled \u201cThe Skewed National Conversation with Stephen Colbert\u201d the whole time.<\/p>\n
What was once a comedy talk show had obnoxiously careened into Rachel Maddow with musical guests and the same stylist.<\/p>\n
Everybody \u2014 even his most devoted fans \u2014 knows this to be undeniably true.<\/p>\n
Colbert largely avoided politics Thursday outside of some thinly veiled references to President Trump and a black hole sketch featuring astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, which turned the outer space anomaly into a metaphor for the forces that gave him the boot. Some more laugh-free filler.<\/p>\nOne sketch about a black hole featured astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDespite politics\u2019 absence, sober, un-fun, slanted discourse is what defined Colbert\u2019s unremarkable run \u201cThe Late Show\u201d \u2014 especially his open antagonism toward Trump.<\/p>\n
The small segment of the population who mystifyingly wanted that at 11:30 p.m., right before bed, pushed the program narrowly to No. 1 in the ratings. And thus Colbert came to see himself as a martyr for the cause and a strident warrior who holds truth to power. A Supreme Court Jester.<\/p>\n
That kind of high-minded, grandiose thinking from a network comedian is delusional. It was a ratings grab and nothing more. I was reminded of the old Walter Winchell quote: \u201cThe way to become famous fast is to throw a brick at someone who is famous.\u201d<\/p>\nColbert\u2019s 11-year tenure will be remembered for turning late night into a more political genre. CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nTurning late night into an angry second hour of the evening news gave Colbert and the likeminded Jimmy Kimmel \u2014 both of whom only make headlines if the word \u201cTrump\u201d is also in them \u2014\u00a0 a boost. But the tactic has effectively rotted the institution\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n
Thanks to \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d\u2019s snarky Gen X spawn, who increasingly make Jon Stewart look like John McCain, younger generations now believe that these shows that used to feature some of the most innovative comedy on TV (Letterman, Conan, Craig Ferguson) are where you go to watch a power-suited Nancy Pelosi take pot shots.<\/p>\n
The podcasts and YouTube shows they\u2019ve turned to instead are friendlier and funnier. Young, weird comics from Brooklyn are fresher, sharper and better.<\/p>\nPaul McCartney performed \u201cHello, Goodbye,\u201d in the show\u2019s most memorable moment. CBS ENTERTAINMENT via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nColbert\u2019s acrid model was unsustainable. When Trump\u2019s second term is over, those little lefty late-night audiences would have become microscopic. They definitely will for Kimmel. We\u2019ve already seen it happen to the Washington Post and what was once MSNBC. As soon as their customers\u2019 outrage diminished, they jumped ship en masse.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the companies alienated everybody else.<\/p>\n
Of course, the most iconic send-off to a late-night host was Johnny Carson\u2019s final \u201cTonight Show\u201d in 1992, when Bette Midler emotionally serenaded the beloved legend with \u201cOne More For My Baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
You felt like you were losing a family member or your best friend.<\/p>\n
Despite an insufferable yearlong windup of sycophantic adulation and poor-me whining, Thursday\u2019s finale didn\u2019t feel like we lost anything.<\/p>\n
Rather we gained a timeslot.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Stephen Colbert was setting up a bit on his final episode of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d Thursday night, he inadvertently explained why his canceled CBS program became so unbelievably off-putting and tedious. \u201cWe thought the best way to celebrate what we\u2019ve done over the last 11 years is to do a regular episode where I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2428366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[22405,21741,22653,22205,21913],"class_list":["post-2428365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-cbs","tag-entertainment","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-television","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Stephen-Colberts-final-Late-Show-wasnt-funny-or-emotional-at.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428367,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428365\/revisions\/2428367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2428366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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