Late Show Series Finale Takes Cosmic Turn, Builds to ‘Hello, Goodbye’ Performance

Two-thirds of the way through The Late Show with Stephen Colbert‘s supersized series finale on Thursday night, things took a turn.

A cosmic turn.

Stephen Colbert is no stranger to wrapping a late-night run with a high-concept twist. Almost exactly 11-1/2 years ago on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, his final “The Word” segment gave way to a surreal detour that saw his character become immortal after killing the Grim Reaper-like Grimmy. He then launched into a performance of the World War II-era hit “We’ll Meet Again,” accompanied by Jon Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others. In that finale’s closing moments, the Colbert character rode off in Santa Claus’ sleigh, signing off with: “From eternity, I’m Stephen Colbert.”

The Late Show‘s final approach was not dissimilar, capping as it did an unexpected narrative with a musical flourish.

The seeds were planted earlier in the 79-minute finale—first, when a strange sound seemed to emerge from the band stand, and then early on during Colbert’s Paul McCartney interview, when a “fiery glow” appeared on the skyline backdrop behind Colbert’s desk.

Colbert was starting the third act of his interview with Sir Paul when more disturbances prompted him to pause the show, head backstage, and discover a large, green, glowing portal. Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson thankfully arrived to explain that it was a wormhole triggered by the existence of the “contradicting realities” that a No. 1 TV show would be cancelled.

When a nit-picky deGrasse Tyson found himself shoved into the wormhole by Colbert, Jon Stewart showed up next—though not to help, but read a legal notice from Paramount. (Apparently Colbert was fired for stealing printer ink.) Stewart went on to suggest that the cosmic “hole” (which by the by also sucked away Andy Cohen) was in fact a metaphor, and Colbert’s only choice was to “stare it down.”

Stewart departed after sharing a last spit-take with Colbert. The rest of the Strike Force Five podcast team—Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver—then casually appeared, with Kimmel noting that a similar wormhole appeared at his own Trump-targeted talk show “last year, but it went away after about three days.”

Kimmel bullied away the wormhole, and he, Fallon, Meyers and Oliver “teleported” away. Colbert was not in the clear, however, as the wormhole reappeared inside the Ed Sullivan Theater’s domed ceiling, and sucked him, bandleader/musical director Louis Cato, and everyone else away.

Upon the show returning from commercial break, Colbert emerged from the “other side” to join Cato, Elvis Costello (whom Colbert has hailed as “probably my favorite rock artist”), and original Late Show bandleader/musical director Jon Batiste for a performance of Costello’s “Jump Up (Honky Tonk Demo)”—the significance of which Colbert detailed in a 2012 NPR interview.

Afterwards, back “live” on-set, McCartney, Costello, Batiste and house band Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine launched into “Hello, Goodbye,” a Beatles single from 1967—with Colbert singing backup. Many from the Late Show staff also joined in the musical number, along with Colbert’s wife, Evie McGee Colbert, and their three children.

After the song came to a close, Colbert met McCartney backstage and invited the music icon to shut down the lights at the Ed Sullivan. As Sir Paul pulled the lever, from outside we saw the building go dark… and then get cosmically shrunk down and squeezed into a snow globe, which sat on the suddenly vacant lot… where Tommy Westphall a dog named Benny (aka Colbert’s real-life pooch) gave it a sniff whilst passing by.