The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is giving back in a big way thanks to its studio clearance sale. The show’s charity auction of props, wardrobe items, and other memorabilia garnered over $175,000 in winning bids.
When the auctions closed on December 25, the 13 items up for bid had sold for a collective total of $175,353.02. One-hundred percent of The Late Show’s proceeds from the auction will go to World Central Kitchen.
Stephen Colbert launched the auction on his show last month, enlisting Paul Rudd to hawk the items in a segment dubbed “Late Show Home Shopping: Canceled Clearance Sale!: Bye Bye Buy!”
Unsurprisingly, every item sold—and even the cheapest items fetched solid dollars. All told, nine neckties that the show had individually listed generated a total of $28,253.02. The most profitable of the bunch was the tie Colbert wore when he interviewed then-Presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2019, selling for $4,051. That was followed by the tie Colbert wore on his second-ever Late Show, which fetched $3,600.
Another Biden-related item in the mix were the aviator sunglasses Colbert wore during monologues for his impression of the then-President. Packaged with a People magazine issue signed by Rudd as a bonus, the winning bid was $13,100.
The largest lot in the auction, physically speaking, was Colbert’s desk from the pandemic-era A Late Show. The host sat behind said desk for 152 episodes in the show’s COVID-era mini-studio, interviewing both in-person and virtual guests. It sold for $14,800.
The desk, however, was far from the biggest seller. Rather, the star of the auction was the hottest ticket in late-night: two VIP tickets to this May’s finale of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In addition to access to the finale, the winner of the lot received the two prop golden tickets Colbert flashed on air during his announcement of the auction last month.
The pair of tickets sold for a staggering $111,100. (Travel and accommodations were not included.)
A signed script from The Late Show’s first episode, paired with a prop movie poster and another poster signed by Rudd, brought in an additional $8,100.
But the giving may not be over. Colbert has implied that the charity auction would be a recurring segment on the show as he heads toward his very final episode.
An exact date for The Late Show’s May series finale has not yet been announced.
