NEWSStephen Colbert Was in Shock When He Found Out 'The Late Show' Was Being Canceled: 'Could You Say That One More Time?'
The guests for the final episode of Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' haven't been announced yet.
May 19 2026, Published 10:57 a.m. ET
Stephen Colbert was just as shocked as everyone else when Paramount abruptly decided to end his talk show after more than a decade on the air.
The news came in July 2025, with the final episode marked for Thursday, May 21.
In a new interview, the comedian recalled exactly what he was doing when he was given the news, sharing he had been lying down with a sock over his eyes before that night's episode started filming.
Stephen Colbert Recalls Getting the Cancelation News
Stephen Colbert was laying down before filming an episode of 'The Late Show' when his manager told him the series was being axed.
"I sat up and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m awake. Could you say that one more time?’" Colbert spilled.
While the 62-year-old has been hosting the program since 2015, The Late Show goes way back, having first premiered with David Letterman, 79, in 1993.
"I tried never to take for granted filming in the Ed Sullivan Broadway theater, having that tremendous audience, or having the ability to work with the funniest people I know every day and make jokes about the things that make me most anxious," the Colbert Report alum quipped.
It was announced in July 2025 that 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' was being canceled.
While he was obviously upset over the cancelation, he admitted to People that he questions whether CBS "saved my life," explaining, "it takes a lot of bone marrow to do the show every day, and now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do."
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The comedian has been hosting the show since 2015.
The dad-of-three, who shares his adult children with wife Evelyn, is looking forward to having some downtime, as he joked working on the series every week is like "a flaming toboggan ride every day and the trick is to not hit any trees on your way down the mountain before 12:30."
"There's so much to think about to do the show," Colbert emphasized.
While Paramount attributed the cut to financial reasons, many believe it was politically motivated, as Colbert isn't shy about criticizing Donald Trump, 79.
What Will Stephen Colbert Do Next?
The dad-of-three said he hasn't thought about what he'll do next in his career.
When it comes to what he wants to tackle next, he admitted, "I don’t have much better of an answer than most college seniors do, which is I’ve got to finish this first, because it takes almost the entirety of my brain to do this show. So we’ll land this plane and we’ll check out the view from there."
Nonetheless, there are no plans to retire, as he confirmed, "I’m available. Yes."
'I Hope They Laughed'
The Late Show's final episode airs on Thursday, May 21.
Asked what he wants viewers to take away from his program, he replied, "I hope they laughed. I hope they felt better at the end of the day."
"I mean, that's it. We're there. We're the last thing you see," he noted. "A lot of things happen in a day, but we bat last, and so we get the last take that people hear before they go to bed, and I hope it made their day better."
