Stephen Colbert’s time on “The Late Show” won’t end with the taping of the final episode Thursday at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City. Sources say he is hosting an afterparty after the taping at a nearby event space.
Above the invitation, the show’s red, white and blue logo has been tweaked to read “The LAST SHOW with Stephen Colbert,” followed by “that’s a WRAP! (PARTY).” The dress code says, “Cheerful and festive!”
Colbert’s final show will be taped on May 21 and aired later that night on CBS. The network announced in July that it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after 11 seasons, claiming the decision was purely financial.
Following the announcement of the cancellation, Colbert called CBS to blame for his firing and for celebrating his pink slip on Truth Social on President Donald Trump. During Colbert’s opening monologue on July 21, he told the president on camera to “fuck off.” “Let me be the first to say this, everyone: cancel culture has gone too far,” Colbert said. “Over the weekend, I had a sinking feeling that they were going to cancel our show. But they made one mistake. They let me live. And now, for the next 10 months, the gloves are off. I can finally speak the unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump starting now.”
Guests for Colbert’s final show have not yet been announced. I hear that many celebrities other than those who were invited to the final episode of the series have been invited to the afterparty.
Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon announced that their show would go dark on Thursday to honor Colbert. That means ABC and NBC will air reruns of the show instead of new episodes.
Colbert’s next job was co-writing the screenplay for the film The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson recently told Variety that Colbert pitched him a script before The Late Show was canceled.
