Stephen Colbert's final day on 'The Late Show' revealed
- - Stephen Colbert's final day on 'The Late Show' revealed
KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY January 28, 2026 at 3:14 AM
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Stephen Colbert has less than four months left on "The Late Show."
CBS will pull the curtain on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on May 21, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. Colbert reportedly shared his final day on the show during his Jan. 27 appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," which was taped the prior day.
USA TODAY has reached out to "Late Show" representatives for comment.
LateNighter was first to report the news.
The end date reveal comes six months after Colbert revealed in a shock July 14 announcement that parent company Paramount Global decided to cancel the show after more than three decades.
"We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire 'The Late Show' franchise at that time," the company's statement said. "We are proud that Stephen called CBS home."
The move was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," the statement added. "It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content, or other matters happening at Paramount."
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Paramount's decision came against a backdrop of widely reported financial and business decisions that included the media company's controversial $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a defamation lawsuit tied to a "60 Minutes" interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Colbert, in his July 14 opening monologue, called the infamous $16 million payment a "big fat bribe" in his scathing opening monologue.
The settlement was widely criticized as a financial concession to facilitate the studio's pending sale to Skydance Media, which required regulatory approval from the Trump administration. On July 24, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved the $8.4 billion merger.
Colbert blasted new FCC guidance as trying to 'silence' late-night TV
The Federal Communications Commission issued a Jan. 21 public notice with new guidance stating that daytime and late-night television talk shows do not have a blanket exemption under the Communications Act of 1934.
The law required FCC licensees, both in radio and later in television, to offer equal broadcast opportunities to political candidates and was amended in 1959 to exempt newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries and on-the-spot coverage of news events.
In the Jan. 22 episode of "The Late Show," Colbert said the new guidance was an attempt to silence him, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel, whose show ABC temporarily pulled off the air following pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
"Hey, I'm flattered you think that appearing on my show has the power to affect politics in any way, OK? I've been doing this job for 21 years, and let me tell you something, buddy. If our government had turned out the way I had chosen, you would not have the power to make this announcement," Colbert quipped.
Colbert, a Comedy Central alumnus who was previously a "Daily Show" correspondent and host of "The Colbert Report," has hosted "The Late Show" for nearly 10 years, taking over on Sept. 8, 2015. He succeeded David Letterman, who sat in the host's chair for nearly 22 years, from August 1993 until May 20, 2015.
Contributing: Bryan Alexander and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen Colbert 'Late Show' last show date revealed
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
