Stephen Colbert's Final Late Show Episode Set for May 21, 2026
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is concluding its run after more than a decade on air, with the final episode scheduled to broadcast on Thursday, May 21, 2026. CBS confirmed the cancellation in July 2025, citing financial challenges in the late-night television landscape rather than performance issues, despite speculation linking the decision to Colbert's recent criticism of a network settlement involving Donald Trump. The series finale will air at 11:35 p.m. EST on CBS and will be available via the official YouTube channel. While the guest list for the final week remains undisclosed, the penultimate week features high-profile appearances including the Strike Force Five hosts, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pedro Pascal, former President Barack Obama, Tom Hanks, and David Letterman. This marks the end of an era for the franchise that began with David Letterman in 1993. Colbert’s future projects include co-writing a Lord of the Rings film, but his immediate post-latent night plans remain unannounced. The closure signifies a major shift in American late-night television, removing one of its most prominent voices amid industry-wide financial pressures.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection