The series finale of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” became the most-watched weeknight episode in series history, according to early data from CBS. I Network reported that Thursday night’s final episode of “The Late Show” had 6.74 million viewers.
This is an increase from the show’s average audience of 2.69 million viewers in Q1 2026 by Live + 7 Big Data Information. This exceeds the average audience of 6.55 million viewers when the “Late Show” series premiered on September 8, 2015.
The most-watched episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in history was the post-Super Bowl episode on February 7, 2016, with a start time of 10:54 p.m. That episode garnered 20.55 million viewers.
For comparison, during a completely different time in terrestrial television viewing, the final broadcast of “Late Show with David Letterman” in May 2015 drew 13.76 million viewers (which was the show’s highest audience since February 1994).
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” has been canceled by CBS due to questionable circumstances. Although the network says it was a purely financial decision, the timing (just when the network’s owners needed to curry favor with the Trump administration) and the way “The Late Show” ended left many fans and viewers scratching their heads at the decision to cancel the series after 33 years.
The final episode saw surprise guest Paul McCartney turn off the lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater, the historic venue where the Beatles performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 and home of “The Late Show” since 1993.
“The Late Show” ended with McCartney and Colbert singing the Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye,” while Elvis Costello, former bandleader Jon Batiste, current bandleader Luis Cato and staff members sang and danced on and around the stage.
In addition to McCartney, celebrity guests stopped by including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro, Ryan Reynolds, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Andy Cohen.
Among other highlights, an interdimensional wormhole appeared in the Ed Sullivan Theater. And before the finale of “Hello Goodbye,” Colbert, Cato, Batiste and Costello performed Costello’s 1977 song “Jump Up.”
