Bruce Springsteen and Steven Spielberg will be among the guests on the final week of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
In July last year, Colbert shocked the TV industry by announcing on air that The Late Show had been cancelled by its network CBS. The comedian and satirist has hosted the show since 2015, when he took over from David Letterman, who had been at the helm for 22 years before him.
CBS has chosen to retire the Late Show franchise entirely, describing the move as “purely a financial decision”, although it has been widely speculated that the cancellation might be politically motivated, due to Colbert’s pattern of openly criticising the Donald Trump administration.
Just four episodes of The Late Show remain, and the guests have been announced. On Monday (May 18), there will be an episode dubbed ‘The Worst of The Late Show’, which has been labelled as “not a clip show!”, while on Tuesday, Colbert will interview his mentor and fellow Daily Show alum Jon Stewart, as well as Hollywood legend Spielberg.
Tuesday’s episode will also feature a special musical performance from David Byrne, while on Wednesday he will interview Springsteen, and take his own long-running ‘Colbert Questionert’, with special guests. The final episode will air on Thursday (May 21), although no specific details have been shared.
After the show’s cancellation was announced, Trump wrote: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”
The host hit back at the President on his next show, feigning outrage and saying: “How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?”. He then turned to a camera marked “Eloquence Cam” and said in a New York accent: “Go fuck yourself”.
Colbert has not just been outspoken about Trump, but also previously criticised CBS’ parent company Paramount for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16million (£12million) over his claims that CBS News deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris.
The cancellation has stoked fears in the TV industry about the future of late-night shows, with Conan O’Brien using a speech last summer to predict that it might “disappear”, as “the life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change”.
Colbert, meanwhile, has been announced as a writer on a new Lord Of The Rings sequel, subtitled Shadows Of The Past. He is a well-known Tolkien expert and had a cameo in The Hobbit films.
The post Bruce Springsteen and Steven Spielberg among guests for Stephen Colbert’s final week on ‘The Late Show’ appeared first on NME.