Stephen Colbert has revealed that the final episode of The Late Show will air on May 21.
As Variety reports, Colbert announced the date for the last ever show while filming tonight’s episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers.
It was announced last July that network CBS would be canceling the long-running late night show. In announcing the show’s cancelation, the network described the host as “irreplaceable” and said it will retire the long-running franchise, citing a “financial decision.”
In the months since the cancelation, Colbert has repeatedly taken aim at CBS and its parent company.
Paramount, which owns CBS, decided to cancel his show just days before the Trump administration approved its merger with David Ellison’s Skydance. Since then, Colbert has spent time zinging his corporate bosses on his way out the door.
During his opening monologue, Colbert riffed on the president’s recently launched “Board of Peace,” which he bills as a charter to resolve a series of global conflicts and he will chair personally.
Members nations on the board “shall serve a term of no more than three years,” unless they “contribute more than” $1 billion, according to the charter.
“Now, admittedly, the idea of paying a billion dollars to obey Donald Trump seems a little steep; after all, CBS got to do it for just $16 million,” the comic cracked, prompting applause and laughter from the studio audience.
Colbert, who has long been a Trump antagonist, was highly critical of the Paramount settlement with the president immediately after it was announced in July, calling it “big, fat bribe” and noting that legal experts called Trump’s lawsuit frivolous and without merit.
Days later, CBS revealed that it was canceling the Late Show and Colbert would be leaving the network in May – something that the president had repeatedly called for over the years.
While the network said the decision was purely a financial one due to declining ad revenues for late-night television, CBS staffers claimed it was a continuation of the “Trump shakedown” that began with the settlement.
In a joint statement to CBS News, George Cheeks, the Co-CEO of Paramount Global; Amy Reisenbach, the President of CBS Entertainment and David Stapf, the President of CBS Studios said: “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season. We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time.
“We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late night television.”
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