Stephen Colbert had a great 2025, and has a great lesson to share after getting through it.
While talking to Andy Cohen57 i Anderson Cooper58, during his New Year’s coverage on CNNColbert was asked to reflect on the past 12 months.
“So much has happened in the last year of your life, I’m curious why you left last year after learning? What was the main lesson you learned?” Cohen asked.
In response, Tthe Late Show with Stephen Colbert The host, 61, joked: “What did I learn? Don’t trust billionaires!”
Colbert teamed up The Traitors host Alan Cumming in April 2025 to perform a parody song “Billionaires Are Actually Good” in an episode of The Late Show.
“All these billionaires are having a huge impact on our politics these days,” Colbert said on the show while introducing the song. He added: “So you know your government understands what you’re going through, people. They have to buy eggs too. Fabergé eggs. But still.”
The late-night host then asked: “Why do they also need political power and rocket launches and for everyone to see them in magazines looking excited and excited?”
Colbert went on to suggest that the rich were trying to fill an “emotional void” and that the song’s existence might help. The song’s lyrics openly mocked the interests of the super-rich.
“Some people say we gotta eat the rich / I don’t blame them, they look delicious,” the pair sang. “Shut up, buy their self-driving cars / And if you’re lucky, you’ll be their slave on Mars.”
Two months later, Colbert announced it CBS had unleashed The Late Showwith the final episode ending after the 2025/2026 season after a decade on air.
Stephen Colbert.
(Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)“Before we start the show, I want to let you know something I found out last night. Next year will be our last season, (CBS) will end The Late Show in May,” Colbert said before the taping of the show’s July 17 episode.
As the audience booed, he continued: “I share your feelings. It’s not just the end of our show, it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. They don’t replace me. All this just disappears. I mean the people at CBS have been great partners… And I’m grateful to the audience, to you, who have joined us every night, here, out there and around the world.”
Co-CEO of Paramount Global and Chairman and CEO of CBS George Cheeks, President of CBS Entertainment Amy Reisenbach and president of CBS Studios David Staph addressed the cancellations in a statement at the time.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season. We consider Stephen Colbert to be irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at the time,” the statement said. “We are proud to have Stephen call CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats who graced late-night television.”
CBS came under fire after canceling Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, but when will the final episode air? Colbert, 61, took over hosting the Late Show franchise after David Letterman stepped down in 2015 and celebrated nearly a decade on the air before shocking viewers with the cancellation news. “Before the show begins (…)
Colbert spoke more about the end of his late show stay during an interview with GQ magazine in November 2025.
“Listen, every show has to end at some point,” Colbert said GQ. “And I’ve been on a lot of shows that have ended sometimes with our lights out and sometimes by other people’s decisions. And that’s just the nature of show business. You can’t worry about it. You’ve got to be a big boy about it. But I think we’re the first number one show that’s been canceled.”
That said, Colbert admitted that he loved doing the show, but will also feel a “sense of relief” that it’s ending.
“I love what we do and I love the routine,” he said. “You can only do one of those shows, do the pranks every night, year after year for 20 years, if you care about what you’re talking about. And I do. But there’s a sense of relief that maybe I don’t have to put on my snorkel and go into the sewer every day.”