“THIS REALLY FEELS LIKE THE END OF AN ERA” — COLBERT’S EXTENDED FINALE HAS FANS HEARTBROKEN 

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Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’.Credit: 

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty

Stephen Colbert is gonna need more than an hour to end his 11-year run on The Late Show.

As the late-night host’s epic farewell approaches, more details are being unveiled about the May 21st final broadcast that will not only mark the end of Colbert’s tenure but the final days of the Late Show franchise as a whole.

In new promos, CBS has begun boasting that Thursday’s sendoff will be an “extended Late Show series finale,” indicating that Colbert’s final episode will run beyond the show’s usual allotted hour. The network has not yet revealed the exact runtime of the finale.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to CBS for comment.

Another unknown element of the Late Show finale is who will be joining Colbert in the Ed Sullivan Theater for his fond farewell. Leading up to Thursday, the show will feature appearances from Jon Stewart, Steven Spielberg, David Byrne, and Bruce Springsteen — but CBS is being tight-lipped about who will appear in the very last episode.

Colbert’s time with The Late Show won’t end when the camera cuts. After the final episode tapes on May 21, to be broadcast later that night, it will be followed by an epic after-party at a nearby event space, per Variety. Invitations for the festivities read, “That’s a WRAP! (PARTY),” with the dress code described as “Fired & Festive!”

The guest list for the event will, of course, include the stars set to appear in the finale, in addition to several other celebrities.

In July, CBS announced that The Late Show would conclude its historic 33-year run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season, retiring Colbert’s show and the franchise as a whole. The network has insisted that its decision to pull the plug on the franchise was “purely a financial one” and that it wasn’t “related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

However, many have skeptically pointed to the timing of the announcement, pointing out that Colbert had criticized CBS’ corporate parent, Paramount Global, for agreeing to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on 60 Minutes. Notably, Trump has long been vocal about his disdain for Colbert and celebrated news of The Late Show‘s cancellation on social media.

Meanwhile, Colbert has not held back his own feelings about the cancellation. Days after the news arrived, he responded to the president’s remarks during his July 21 monologue, stating, “Folks, I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far. Over the weekend, it sunk in that they’re killing off our show. But they made one mistake: They left me alive. And now, for the next 10 months, the gloves are off.”

Colbert has taken an unconventional approach to his final episodes. Last week, David Letterman joined the host to chuck furniture off the Ed Sullivan Theater roof and onto a CBS target. Then, on Monday, he broke the show’s usual format by inviting his staff members to present previously rejected and unaired bits from throughout the show’s run.

Colbert’s final episode will air with no other late-night competition, as Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon have announced that their programs will go dark on Thursday, with ABC and NBC airing reruns of their show instead of new episodes.