Some of Stephen Colbert’s late-night colleagues joined him in the audience of “The Late Show” on Monday after he announced last week that CBS will be canceling the show in 2026.
Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and more had cameos in the audience of “The Late Show” on July 21 — the first episode since Colbert revealed his show was being canceled — as he addressed the fallout from the announcement from CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global.
“Welcome one and all to the Late Show. I’m your host, Stephen Colbert. Thank you very much, folks,” he said as the audience roared with applause.
“I’m going to go ahead and say it — cancel culture has gone too far,” Colbert added.
Colbert was joined by some of comedy’s biggest names during a segment featuring a parody of the viral jumbotron moment during a Coldplay concert at Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium last week.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and “Weird Al” Yankovic were brought on stage to play some music to cheer up disappointed Colbert fans, and cameras scanned the crowd, landing on several famous spectators like NBC’s Fallon and Meyers.
In addition to late-night hosts Stewart and Oliver, Adam Sandler and his “Happy Gilmore 2” co-star Christopher McDonald also made a cameo, along with Bravo host Andy Cohen and his bestie, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
Colbert announced on July 17 that “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” will end in May 2026, at the end of the 2025-2026 season.
“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of ‘The Late Show’ on CBS,” he said.
He added: “I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away.”
Colbert has hosted the show since 2015, taking over from host David Letterman, who first hosted the show in 1993.
George Cheeks, co-CEO Paramount Global and president and CEO of CBS, Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, and David Stapf, president of CBS Studios, said in a statement on July 17 that their admiration and respect for Colbert made “this agonizing decision even more difficult.”
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” the statement said. “It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
The cancelation news came two days after Colbert criticized Paramount’s $16 million settlement of a lawsuit from President Donald Trump ahead of a proposed merger with media production company Skydance Media.
Colbert’s late-night colleagues spoke out against the decision over the weekend, with Letterman posting a 20-minute video of different moments in which he criticized CBS and its actions when he hosted the show, and Stewart responding to the news on the July 21 episode of “The Daily Show.”
“Watching Steven exceed all expectations in the role and become the No. 1 late night show on network television has been an undeniable great pleasure for me, as a viewer and as his friend,” Stewart said.
Oliver also shared his reaction to the cancellation in an interview with NBC News on July 19.
“There were many of us working in late night now that were raised on that show under David Letterman,” he said. “There will be many future comedy writers that were raised on what Stephen has done with it now.”
“So the fact that that’s going to get taken away is kind of heartbreaking, to be honest,” he added.
Colbert acknowledged the support on the July 21 episode of his show, and kept up the laughs throughout the night.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just got this note from corporate,” Colbert told Miranda and Yankovic during their performance.
“What’s going on?” Miranda asked.
“Hold on, give me a second,” Colbert said. “Your song has been canceled.”
“What? Why?” Miranda and Yankovic asked.
“I don’t know. It says here this is a purely financial decision,” Colbert replied.
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