Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Jon Batiste, Louis Cole and Stephen Colbert, image via YouTube.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired its final episode last night, and the guest-packed event served as a fond farewell to the long-running late-night program. Colbert has earned widespread attention since CBS canceled The Late Show in an unsubtle appeal to Donald Trump, and in his last week of shows, he’s shared that spotlight with a litany of high-profile special guests and impactful musical performances, including David Byrne’s gleeful “Burning Down the House” on Tuesday and Bruce Springsteen’s solemn “Streets of Minneapolis” on Thursday. For the grand finale, Colbert welcomed Paul McCartney, among many others.
Thursday’s cancellation bonanza started rolling out noteworthy cameos only minutes into the program, when Colbert’s monologue was interrupted by Bryan Cranston, the first of several celebrities calling out from the audience to speculate about whether they might have the honor of being The Late Show’s final guest. That coveted closing slot had been under lock and key all week, and other also-rans who chimed in from the crowd through the first half-hour of the program included Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, Tig Notaro and Ryan Reynolds. One widely speculated possibility for the final guest was Pope Leo XIV, a notion Colbert acknowledged by saying that his holiness had refused to leave the green room due to his dissatisfaction with the Chicago-style hot dog he’d been offered.
In a pinch, McCartney came out and insisted on filling the slot and reminisced with the host about The Beatles’ unforgettable 1964 performances in the same, albeit renovated, Ed Sullivan Theater. The pair riffed on being open to change before a wormhole opened backstage that threatened to swallow late-night talk shows as we know them, bringing on appearances from Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Jon Oliver, plus Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elijah Wood. When Colbert returned to the stage, he revealed how he wanted to go out: joining Elvis Costello on the My Aim Is True demo “Jump Up.”
Colbert telegraphed that choice in a 2012 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. “I love the song because it's sort of a satirical song,” he said. “It's got a parodic nature to it, or not a parodic nature, but it's really, it's got sort of a political, satirical song. And I've never discussed this song with Elvis, so I might get a message from Elvis Costello after this interview with you, saying, "You know nothing of my work. What are you talking about?" But I've always thought of it as a - it's sort of like a - it's a person who is talking about insignificance in the name of power or of something that they want, and also talking about the hypocrisy of politicians.”
After that stripped-back song, The Late Show’s final musical moment called McCartney back to the stage to lead the fitting “Hello, Goodbye.” McCartney, Colbert and Costello were joined by Jon Batiste, Louis Cato and the house band for the last blast. Watch the historic performance below.
