Stephen Colbert’s 11-year stint as host of “The Late Show” will end on May 21st. While its premature end was announced just weeks before the pro-Trump Ellison family completed its takeover of CBS and Paramount, leading many to believe it was a move to appease Trump, the network claimed that Colbert’s late-night show was losing about $40 million a year, a figure that prompted friendly rival Jimmy Kimmel to quip: “That’s not true.” The probability that Snowball will go to hell is accurate. ”
President Trump was positively giddy about Colbert’s ouster, lending further credence to the aforementioned theory, posting on Truth Social, “I’m so glad Colbert was fired. His talent was even less than he was given credit for. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Even less talented than Colbert!”
Well, for whatever reason, Colbert will be out in a week. And in the last few weeks, the funnyman has hosted friends and celebrities ranging from fellow late-night hosts Kimmel, Oliver, Meyers and Fallon to Tom Hanks, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and former President Barack Obama. And on Thursday night, Colbert welcomed back his “Late Show” predecessor, the great David Letterman. His big, bushy beard resembles Joaquin Phoenix during his infamous performance art stunts on the show.
After a long standing ovation and a great musical intro to “Seven Nation Army,” Letterman took to the stage to offer his condolences to Colbert.
“You know what happened backstage? I was standing backstage and a guy came up and said he was from CBS and fired me. What’s going on over there?!” Letterman cracked.
“I’m going to get a little pissed off here because I have every right to be pissed off,” he continued. “This theater, you wouldn’t be here without me, and Stephen wouldn’t be here without me. And we rebuilt this theater, and Stephen comes in and looks at this. It’s like the Bellagio. But listen…as everyone understands, you can take a man’s show, but you can’t take a man’s voice.”
Letterman then added the punchline: “What I’m really worried about is what’s going to happen to Jimmy’s family? Are they going to be okay?” mentioned Colbert’s late-night compatriots Kimmel and Fallon.
“We’re planning on putting them into a captive breeding program,” Colbert joked.
He wasn’t finished yet. Letterman asked Colbert if Skydance owned the furniture on stage, and when Colbert replied that Skydance did, Colbert had some stagehands grease up and remove the couch. Afterwards, the two sat in the audience and reminisced about their history at Manhattan’s famous Ed Sullivan Theater. For Colbert, as Letterman puts it, theater was “screeched to a halt by the hands of others.” They then went to the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater and committed the “merciless destruction of CBS property” by having stagehands throw a couch from the roof onto the giant CBS logo, followed by a desk chair, followed by a watermelon and a wedding cake (why wouldn’t they?).
