Stephen Colbert took his seat behind the “The Late Show” desk for an emotional final broadcast Thursday evening but, true to his famous satiric wit, managed to get in a last dig at CBS, which has drawn harsh backlash since it canceled the show in July.
Colbert spoke of his joy in hosting the show for so long. The show team refers to the production as “the joy machine,” Colbert said, explaining it must run like a machine. But he added, “If you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.”
The show brought in several famous guests, several of whom chided the Paramount-owned network and alluded to President Donald Trump’s fury at being a target of Colbert’s sharp jokes, to celebrate Colbert’s legacy.
The cancellation was met with accusations that Paramount was ending the show to appease Trump. It came 10 months after Paramount-owned CBS announced it was pulling the show, citing financial reasons. At the time, Paramount was seeking the Trump administration’s approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance, which cleared in July and cemented Trump-aligned David Ellison as chairman and CEO of the powerful media company.
Trump cheered the show’s demise with a derogatory post on his social media platform Friday.
“Colbert is finally finished at CBS. Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Colbert’s last broadcast wrapped. “He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”
But on Thursday, Colbert appeared to have come to terms with his parent network’s decision as he invited his guests, including other late night show hosts, comedians and celebrities to offer words of wisdom. The biggest star was Paul McCartney, who closed out the 80-minute broadcast with a Beatles song.
Colbert himself avoided mentioning Trump, but he didn’t ignore the opportunity to take a jab at CBS. Referring to the array of costly lawsuits filed by the copyright owners of the iconic “Peanuts” theme song, Colbert instructed his band to go ahead and play the tune.
“Oh no, I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!” Colbert exclaimed to his studio audience, which erupted in laughter.
Some of his guests went further.
“Paramount strongly believes in covering both sides of any black hole that is swallowing everything we know and love, and coverage must also include the positive aspects of the insatiable emptiness,” Jon Stewart told Colbert while the pair stood in front of a metaphorical black hole.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson jokingly explained that the hole’s meaning as “two contradictory realities cannot coexist without rupturing the space-time continuum. For instance, if a show is number one on late night and it also gets canceled.”
Colbert went on to crack jokes and receive advice from the likes of Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tig Notaro, Ryan Reynolds, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver.
Trump, who is notoriously sensitive to late-night criticism, has repeatedly attacked Colbert over his cutting sarcasm on the administration’s policies. Colbert has mocked Trump’s relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his justification for the Iran war and the Department of Justice’s $1.8 billion “slush fund,” to name a few.
Colbert himself did not opine about the end of the 33-year show during his final weeks on air, which featured episodes with other late-night show hosts and prominent Trump critics.
He closed his final episode by singing the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye” alongside McCartney in the same Manhattan theater that drove the British band’s overwhelming popularity in America.
The post Colbert avoids Trump in final ‘Late Show,’ but president rages afterward anyway appeared first on MS NOW.
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