Stephen Colbert said goodbye to “The Late Show” on Thursday with a poignant send-off that included cameos from prominent figures – and some pointed digs at Paramount and CBS.

While Colbert ended the program on a largely joyful note – and never mentioned President Donald Trump by name – he did include a running bit about a black hole/interdimensional portal that took aim at CBS’s parent company and news coverage of the administration.

Numerous celebrities, including actors Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, stopped by to pay tribute to Colbert, tease who his final guest could be and lash out in mock anger when they discovered it wouldn’t be them.

“Screw you, Colbert! You know what! You got what you deserve!” Meadows said jokingly.

At one point, Colbert even suggested that Pope Leo XIV, the guest he once described as his “white whale,” was in a dressing room backstage. “Leo” was humorously shown hidden by a door and bailing on the appearance because he hadn’t received the Chicago hot dogs he requested in his rider.

The honor of being Colbert’s final guest ultimately went to storied Beatles singer Paul McCartney, who spoke about his experience making the band’s U.S. television debut at the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1964.

“Looking back on it now, what I’m pleased with, we’re live and we sound good,” McCartney said. “We were a little bit nervous, you know, but we’re young kids and we’re sort of full of ourselves.”

Colbert also treated much of his final episode like a typical show, except for technical glitches that repeatedly occurred on set. Those mysterious noises and flickering lights ultimately culminated in the appearance of a black hole backstage, where Colbert was forced to confront his future alongside fellow late-night host and former “Daily Show” colleague Jon Stewart.

Stewart informed Colbert that he’d been tasked with reading a statement from Paramount, which is now led by David Ellison, the son of one of Trump’s top allies.

“Quote, Paramount strongly believes in covering both sides of any black hole swallowing everything we know and love,” Stewart said. “The coverage must also include the positive aspects of the insatiable emptiness.”

The statement was one of multiple jabs the show took at CBS and Paramount, which canceled the program in mid-2025, days after Colbert criticized the company for a settlement it reached with Trump.

Paramount has faced questions over whether it canceled Colbert’s late-night show for political reasons. However, CBS claimed it was “purely a financial decision,” a comment the show mocked on Thursday.

After a heartfelt chat with Stewart, Colbert was joined near the black hole by other members of “Strike Force Five”: fellow late-night hosts John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.

“Why aren’t you guys being pulled in, too?” Colbert asked.

“Actually, one of these holes opened at my show last year, but it went away after about three days,” Kimmel said in an apparent reference to the time that ABC yanked his show after he made comments about how Republicans responded to Charlie Kirk’s killing.

That decision came after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney, ABC and their broadcast affiliates.

“I think I get it now. It looks like the end. And I wish it wasn’t, but that’s not for me to decide,” Colbert said. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Visual effects eventually showed Colbert, his team and the audience getting absorbed into the black hole before going to commercial. Once the show returned from its ad break, Colbert joined McCartney onstage for a soulful rendition of The Beatles’ classic “Hello, Goodbye,” which he sang alongside members of his team and audience.

“You say goodbye, and I say hello,” Colbert sang before he and McCartney were seen turning off the lights in “The Late Show” building.

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