‘Hello, Goodbye’: CBS cancels ‘Late Show’ host Stephen Colbert exits

But one A-list star who ultimately didn’t make it into the comic was the Pope, who Colbert, a devout Catholic, had long touted as his dream guest.

“The Pope, who is definitely my guest tonight, has canceled,” Colbert joked, blaming a hot dog controversy for the incident, before McCartney showed up to loud cheers.

The show, which Colbert had hosted since 2015, was axed after he allegedly “maliciously” edited an interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris to mock the broadcaster’s $16 million settlement with Trump.

Colbert called it a “huge bribe.”

CBS insists the decision to cancel then-ratings leader “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was purely financial and coincidental as CBS parent Paramount lobbied for government approval of its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.

Around that time, CBS hired Barry Weiss, a right-wing journalist with no extensive television experience, to run its news division.

In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s curtain call, Colbert, 62, had been low-key at times, lacking his usual cheerful demeanor.

“We’re here to cover the news with you, and I don’t know you, but I feel it,” he told viewers Thursday.

On Thursday, Colbert stopped short of mentioning Trump directly, instead using a recurring CGI wormhole joke as a metaphor for the president’s impact on American public life.

McCartney sang the Beatles’ hit “Hello, Goodbye” to a sold-out audience at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater, where the Beatles performed on their U.S. debut in 1964.

“We believed America was the land of freedom, the greatest democracy. We were and still hope so,” he said, wagging his finger at Colbert.

Actors Tim Meadows, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds and Bryan Cranston also guest star in the film.

Spectator Koenraad Smits, 31, told AFP after the recording: “It’s amazing. No, he didn’t cry, somehow he stayed calm throughout the whole thing.”

A huge crowd gathered around the famous Manhattan theater, cheering each celebrity’s arrival and trying to listen through the stage door.

Late-night hosts on major television networks have angered Trump with their satire and alleged liberal bias.

In September 2025, Colbert’s comic counterpart, Jimmy Kimmel, was briefly suspended from his network, ABC, after complaints about comments he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“You know, there was actually a hole in my show last year that was gone in about three days,” Kimmel said of the “wormhole” that destroyed Colbert’s show.

He told Colbert’s fans to cancel their subscriptions to CBS digital platforms.

The president has long been a vocal critic of late-night talk show hosts and their attacks on him. Trump called Colbert a “pathetic train wreck” who should be “put to sleep.”

Right-wing Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld, a late-night host, had a less than loving farewell.

“I was just talking to my Uber driver, Stephen Colbert, about this this morning,” he said on Wednesday’s show.

Colbert is famous for playing a fictional version of himself, embodying the type of conservative blowhard that Fox News viewers love but is derided by the left.

He first played the suit-wearing but dim-witted character on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and then on the spin-off “The Colbert Report.”

When Colbert was named host of CBS’s flagship show, he broke free from character and used his own voice to reach the top of American late-night television.

Colbert has been coy about what’s next for him, but announced that he will be a writer on a future “Lord of the Rings” movie.

“A lot of people now ask me what I’m going to do after tonight, and the answer is drugs,” he joked Thursday.

Out of respect for Colbert’s swan song, rival late-night hosts replayed it all Thursday, with an afterparty themed “Fires and Festivals!”