It may have been Taylor Swift’s birthday this week, but it was her fans who were given a gift, when the artist’s new documentary, The End of an Era, premiered, streaming with a Disney+ subscription. In promoting the series — and a new concert movie of the tour’s final show — she visited Stephen Colbert’s late-night show, and in one heartbreaking exchange, it seems that Swift forgot that this is the end of an era for him as well.
Stephen Colbert has been a Swiftie for years, so the two definitely had some fun when she visited The Late Show, even as she acknowledged that there are some people who wish she would “just go away.” The late night host didn’t say it, but he can probably relate more than the artist realized, which became clear when he asked her to name her Top 5 Taylor Swift songs. After listing a couple — “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” and “Mirrorball” — she asked for more time to think about it, suggesting:
We could do an update at some point if I have some time to look back and be like ‘No, this is the Top 5.’
Unfortunately, it seems Taylor Swift wasn’t thinking about the fact that The Late Show has been canceled following its current season, but Stephen Colbert gently reminded her of what he’s been going through (and CBS’ other staffing shakeups) by joking:
You’ve got all the time you need between now and May.
I think I’d probably have been horrified to be reminded in such a way that the end of the longtime late-night show is five short months away, but Taylor Swift took it in stride, laughing as she basically dismissed the idea that Stephen Colbert leaving late-night meant that he wouldn’t land on his feet somewhere else. She said:
No, you’re gonna be, like, podcast guy. You’re gonna be podcasting, you’re gonna be an influencer. You’re gonna make TikToks.
It was a good save, honestly — better than when Taylor Swift’s friend Emma Stone forgot there would be no “next time” when she was on The Late Show in October.
Stephen Colbert is, of course, gracious to his guests who accidentally wade into the uncomfortable territory of mentioning the impending end of his show, but he hasn’t shied away from sharing how difficult the situation has been. He’s compared the impending end to seeing a man walking toward him in the dusk and not knowing if he’s holding “a knife or an ice cream cone.”
Even with the final episode on the horizon, The Late Show continues to (mostly) decimate the late-night competition, and clearly he isn’t having any trouble pulling A-list guests.
You can continue to catch Stephen Colbert weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS (streaming the next day with a Paramount+ subscription), until May, and the first two episodes of Taylor Swift’s six-part The End of an Era docuseries are available to stream now on Disney+, as well as The Eras Tour: The Final Show.
