The final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired on Thursday night, ending an eleven-year run of the highly successful late-night show.
Stephen Colbert, who turned 62 on 13 May, was joined on stage by his last guest, Paul McCartney, who also sang The Beatles’ classic Hello, Goodbye to end the final show.
The show was cancelled after eleven years on CBS, with Paramount, the parent company of CBS, citing financial reasons for the cancellation, according to The Guardian.
As he addressed his audience one last time, an emotional Colbert not only thanked the machine that made the show a possibility, but the audience that had been beside him for the past eleven years.
Stephen Colbert addresses the audience one last time
“We have done over 1800 of these shows, and most nights I come out here, and I talk to the audience beforehand. And tonight I thought I’d talk to the audience in here and the audience out there at home. This show, I want you to know, and you to know, has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show The Joy Machine…” started Colbert.
“We call it The Joy Machine, because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine.”
“But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn’t hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears, and I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other and how much we mean to each other…”
“Now, on night one of The Colbert Report, back in the day, I said, ‘Anyone can read the news to you. I promised to feel the news at you’.”
“And I realised pretty soon this job was different. We were here to feel the news with you, and I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it, and I just want to let all y’all know, in here and out there, how important you’ve been to what we have done, the energy that you’ve given us.”
“We sincerely need that to have done the best possible show we could have for you for the last 11 years. You’ve given to us, we’ve given it all right back to you… We love doing the show for you, but we really, really love doing the show with you,” said Colbert.
“Now, I’ll say to you what I’ve said to every audience for the last 11 years, and I have meant it every time. Have a good show. Thanks for being here. And let’s do it, y’all folks,” he concluded.
Stephen Colbert’s fans sad to see the end of the show
A comment from @ejazbhalloo echoed the sentiment of many of Colbert’s fans, saying: “The cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show only proves why his voice mattered. In an era of silence, he kept challenging power fearlessly. Truth to power has always made the powerful uncomfortable.”
@donnajacobson915 called Colbert a national treasure: “Icon, National Treasure, Truth-sayer, Gentleman, and Master of Comedy”.
