Four months after Stephen Colbert signed off for the final time, another piece of The Late Show has disappeared from its former home on Broadway.
Crews on Wednesday replaced the Late Show with Stephen Colbert marquee that had hung outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, swapping it for a more generic sign bearing the theater’s name.
A couple of large reminders of its most recent occupant remain. The Broadway-theater-inspired C-O-L-B-E-R-T letters that run vertically up the side of the building were still in place Wednesday. The north side of the marquee, which is currently blocked by scaffolding, still carries Late Show branding.
The marquee change comes after Colbert hosted the final edition of The Late Show on May 21, bringing CBS’ 33-year Late Show franchise to an end. David Letterman launched the franchise from the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1993 and remained there through his retirement in 2015. Colbert took over that September following an extensive renovation of the theater.
For the first time in more than three decades, the theater itself is now without a regular occupant.
The building has gone through more than a few identities in its nearly 100-year history.
It opened in 1927 as Hammerstein’s Theatre, a Broadway house built by producer Arthur Hammerstein in honor of his father, impresario Oscar Hammerstein I. Designed by Herbert J. Krapp, its elaborate Gothic interior was intended to evoke a cathedral, complete with stained glass and a domed ceiling.
CBS began using the building for radio broadcasts in 1936 and later converted it for television. Known for years as Studio 50, it became the home of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953. CBS renamed the building for Sullivan in 1967, four years before his variety show left the air.
CBS purchased the theater and the adjoining 13-story office building in 1993 as it prepared for Letterman’s arrival from NBC, beginning a run that would make the building nearly as synonymous with late-night television as it had once been with Sullivan.
What comes next remains unclear. CBS parent company Paramount has previously reviewed its real-estate holdings for possible sales, and industry and real-estate figures have floated everything from another television tenant to a return to theatrical use for the Sullivan.
