First on LateNighter: Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show will run long by 17 minutes tonight.
LateNighter has learned that Thursday’s series finale is scheduled to end at 12:54 a.m., rather than the show’s usual 12:37 a.m. end time. A repeat of Colbert’s time slot successor Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen will follow.
The extended runtime confirms what CBS had hinted at earlier this week, when a promo for Colbert’s final week described Thursday’s episode as “the extended Late Show series finale.” The network had not previously said exactly how long the finale would run.
Details of what Colbert and his team have planned for the finale remain tightly under wraps. CBS has officially billed the episode only as “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Series Finale,” with no guests or segments announced in advance.
The 17-minute overrun gives Colbert’s finale a notable bit of franchise symmetry. David Letterman’s 2015 CBS farewell also ran 17 minutes long, though in that case the extra time was not planned in advance. Letterman’s executive producer Barbara Gaines later recalled CBS giving approval late in the evening as the staff raced to finish the final edit before airtime.
Colbert’s finale marks the end of his 11-year run behind the Late Show desk, as well as the end of the franchise’s 33-year run on CBS.
Both Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon are airing repeats opposite Colbert tonight.
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