Stephen Colbert hosted his fellow late-night frontmen Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver on Monday’s episode of “The Late Show.” The meeting of the minds was a send-off for Colbert as he enters his final days because the face of “The Late Show,” which fits off the air for good on May 21.
Partway through the joint interview, Colbert prompted his guests to “make a case for late-night,” provided that the genre has struggled lately. Kimmel was the primary to go. He emphasized the strength of late-night’s fanbase, which he experienced firsthand when “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was briefly suspended.
“We’ve got quite a lot of shows. 30,000 people watching each, and it adds up,” Kimmel said. “People watch us on YouTube now. People have quite a lot of different options and so they keep coming to us. I’ll let you know, after I got knocked off the air for a number of days, people canceled Disney+. Why aren’t people canceling Paramount+? Since you never had it in the primary place?”
Colbert then posed one other query to the group. He asked his fellow hosts if, as young comedians, they ever thought they’d be “doing a job that the President of the USA would have strong feelings about?”
Kimmel once more took the lead, referring to his recent spat with First Lady Melania Trump. He said, “You recognize what’s even weirder? Doing a job that his wife has strong feelings about.”
Meyers quipped back, “Most of us have avoided that part.”
Oliver then recalled the moment he came upon Kimmel was in hot water with the First Lady via their late-night group chat.
The “Last Week Tonight“ host said, laughing, “It’s an incredible thing to get, in a bunch text, a text from Jimmy saying, ‘Oh, boy.’ After which an image of Melania mad at him.”
Meyers then chimed in again, saying that he likes it when President Donald Trump posts on Truth Social during his show since it means he’s tuning in live, and in that way, supporting the show.
“The thing I like, he posts when the show airs, and I need to say I appreciate that he’s watching linear television,” Meyers said. “If I’d make my case for late-night, it’s that leaders of the free world are watching it when it airs.”
CBS revealed it was cancelling “The Late Show” in July 2025 and cited the move as a “financial decision.” Nevertheless, some have speculated that Colbert was pulled to assist smooth out the merger between Paramount, CBS’ parent company, and David Ellison’s Skydance. At the moment, the merger was still awaiting approval from the FCC, and by proxy, President Trump, a vocal critic of Colbert and late-night as an entire.
Former “Late Show” host David Letterman, who shall be amongst Colbert’s final guests, has been one of the outspoken detractors of CBS’ decision. In a recent interview with Recent York Times journalist Jason Zinoman, Letterman slammed the network’s leadership as “lying weasels.”
“He was dumped since the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to maintain the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?’” Letterman said. “I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They’re lying weasels.”