Stephen Colbert’s penultimate episode of The Late Show turned into a full-blown roast of Donald Trump, with Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro leading the charge. The May 20 episode, which served as Colbert’s second-to-last before his final sign-off, packed in celebrity guests who weren’t shy about taking shots at the president or the network that canceled the show. But one offhand comment about missing files from De Niro ended up stealing the spotlight.
Recommended Videos
According to Us Weekly, Springsteen, who closed the show with a performance of his anti-ICE protest song Streets of Minneapolis, didn’t hold back when he took the mic. The rock legend, 76, told the audience he was there to support Colbert because the host was “the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke.” He didn’t stop there.
Springsteen also called out Larry Ellison and David Ellison, the owners of CBS’ parent company, Paramount Skydance, accusing them of “kissing his a** to get what they want.” The crowd ate it up as Springsteen doubled down, calling them “small-minded people” who “got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.”
The cancellation of The Late Show was framed by CBS as a “purely financial decision”
That explanation hasn’t stopped speculation that politics played a role. Trump, never one to miss an opportunity to gloat, celebrated saying, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired.”
He added, “His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.” The dig at Jimmy Fallon was a low blow, but it’s not like Trump to pull punches when it comes to late-night hosts who’ve criticized him.
For his penultimate episode, Colbert flipped the script by letting his guests take the hot seat. The Colbert Questionert saw stars like Billy Crystal, Martha Stewart and Aubrey Plaza grilling the host, but it was De Niro who delivered the night’s most talked-about moment.
The Oscar winner, a longtime Trump critic, asked Colbert to guess a number. When Colbert landed on 3, De Niro deadpanned, “OK, ‘cause I thought it would have been 2.5 million. That’s the number of Epstein files Trump still hasn’t released.” The joke landed like a ton of bricks becoming the instant highlight of the night.
Colbert’s final episode aired on May 21
The host had already teased that his sign-off would be “something simple.” In an interview with People, he reflected on his time behind the desk, saying he hoped his viewers “laughed” and “felt better at the end of the day.” He added, “We’re the last thing you see. A lot of things happen in a day, but we bat last, and so we get the last take that people hear before they go to bed, and I hope it made their day better.”
The cancellation of The Late Show came just days after Colbert criticized Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump. The president had sued CBS’ 60 Minutes over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the network of deceptive editing. At the time, Paramount was in the middle of a merger with Skydance, which required approval from the Trump administration.
CBS insisted the cancellation was purely financial, but the timing made it hard for fans not to draw their own conclusions. Colbert, for his part, took the news in stride. When his manager delivered the news, he was lying down with a sock over his eyes, resting before the show. “I sat up and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m awake. Could you say that one more time?’” he recalled.
Colbert has nothing but gratitude for the experience
“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. The show was a daily grind, one he described as a “flaming toboggan ride” where the trick was “to not hit any trees on your way down the mountain before 12:30.”
?? The White House is hitting back hard after Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteentargeted President Trump during the penultimate episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
— Mazi okwuoma (@MaziEzike_Nedu) May 22, 2026
During the broadcast, De Niro took a sharp jab at Trump regarding unreleased Epstein files, joking… pic.twitter.com/yVD9f1KyzG
“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,” he said. As an empty nester with three adult children, he’s looking forward to spending more time with his wife of 32 years, Evelyn McGee Colbert.
He’s also got a passion project in the works: writing a new Lord of the Rings movie with his son. The idea has been in the pipeline for years, and as a superfan, Colbert is thrilled to finally bring it to life.
(Featured images: Adam Chitayat and Gabriel Hutchinson)
