Stephen Colbert has assembled a star-studded team of late-night hosts as some of his latest guests on “The Late Show,” which ends on May 21 after the show was canceled by CBS last year.
On May 11, Colbert will interview Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver. As hosts of their own late-night shows on NBC, ABC, and HBO, they partnered with Colbert in 2023 to lead a podcast called “Strike Force Five,” which ran during the simultaneous strikes at the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA. The proceeds from the podcast went to support the crews behind their respective shows while they went without pay as a result of the work stoppage.
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David Letterman, the original host of “The Late Show,” will be Colbert’s guest on May 14. After hosting “Late Night” on NBC from 1982 to 1993, Letterman moved to CBS and continued as host of “The Late Show” until he passed the baton to Colbert when he retired in 2015.
Other guests stopping by “The Late Show” as it draws to a close include John Krasinski, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pedro Pascal and Tom Hanks. The show will also feature several special features in upcoming episodes: “Kids Pitch” featuring Jenny Slate, Liam Neeson, John Oliver, Isa Briones, Taylor Dearden, and The Avett Brothers; a Broadway performance with Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Jackson, Bernadette Peters, Ben Platt and Patrick Wilson; a “Colbert Questioner” answered by Barack Obama; and a performance by The Strokes.
The news of CBS’ cancellation of “The Late Show” became known in July 2025. Although the network referred to a “financial decision,” many prominent voices have called it censorship, as the move came at a time when parent company Paramount was seeking approval from Donald Trump’s FCC for the sale to Skydance. Colbert is a frequent critic of Trump, and Trump has repeatedly celebrated the show’s cancellation.
Letterman, in particular, has been a vocal critic of CBS’ decision, recently calling the network “lying assholes” in an interview with New York Times journalist Jason Zinoman: “He was kicked out because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We will take care of the show. We just throw it into the agreement. When does the ink dry on the check?’ I just want to put on the record that: They are lying. Let me just add one more thing, Jason. They are lying assholes.”
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This interview with James Talarico is an example of what disappears when Stephen Colbert leaves.
