On Tuesday night’s episode of “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert reunited with Jon Stewart, who gave the former “Daily Show” correspondent a gift in honor of his final week at CBS.
At the beginning of the interview, Colbert quickly recalled his early days at Comedy Central, presenting Stewart with a photo from 27 years ago of them together behind the desk at “The Daily Show.”
“One of us hasn’t aged as well as the other,” Stewart joked about himself. “This appears to be a double-blind study where one of the subjects is given an anti-aging peptide and the other is given a placebo.”
In light of Colbert’s impending cancellation, Stewart shared advice he got from David Letterman at the end of his short-lived late-night show “The Jon Stewart Show,” which aired on MTV from 1993 to 1995.
“He said, ‘Don’t confuse cancellation with failure.’ I thought that was profound,” Stewart recalled before delivering the punchline. “But then he said, ‘But in this case, that’s also a failure.'”
Once the conversation was over, Stewart began rolling out his two-part gift. Before his first big announcement, he told Colbert, “Everyone’s coming up with little things. They sing you songs, they write you poems. I don’t do that because I don’t have the talent. And why would I do that? A fleeting wind that blows away like a hum. You deserve something tangible. You deserve a gift that will pay off for the sacrifices and efforts you put into this show and show you the life you can live and the life I’m living now that I’m not in show business. ”
At Stewart’s command, stage technicians rolled out two plush recliners. As Colbert and Stewart collapsed, Stewart exclaimed, “It’s going to be fun to watch this motherfucker play ‘Matlock’! Let me tell you something.”
Stewart said, “This mourning is not over yet. Stephen, this mourning does not begin to capture the joy you brought to me as my friend, or the joy you brought to this country as one of our country’s leading entertainers. What we need at this moment is more than that. Everyone, please welcome Andra Day.”
Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Andra Day then came out from backstage and personally performed her 2015 hit “Rise Up” for Colbert, concluding Stewart’s appearance on “The Late Show.”
The final episode of “The Late Show” will air Thursday at 11:35 p.m. on CBS, but Bruce Springsteen will be the musical guest on Wednesday’s show, but other guests have not been disclosed.
Watch the full interview below.
