Stephen Colbert’s dream final guest was supposed to be the Pope. Instead, he got a Beatle—and a farewell gift only Paul McCartney could give.
McCartney, Colbert’s surprise final interview guest on Thursday’s Late Show finale, presented the host with a custom-framed photo of the Beatles performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, taken on the same stage Colbert has called home for the past 11 years.
The moment came after a fake-out. Having long joked that the Pope would be his ideal final guest, Colbert began introducing his “infallible” interview subject, only for the bit to reveal that Pope Leo had refused to come out of his dressing room because the show had failed to meet the terms of his rider.
“No way, Colbert!” the offstage Pope declared. “You call that a Chicago dog? Pope don’t play like that. Leo out!”
With the Pope suddenly unavailable, McCartney stepped in from the, um, wings.
“Hey, Steve. What about me?” he asked, bringing the Ed Sullivan Theater crowd to its feet.
McCartney said he had “just [been] in the area” doing errands, but he’d brought Colbert something: the framed Beatles photo, a gesture with obvious resonance for both the host and the room.
The Late Show has broadcast from the Ed Sullivan Theater since 1993, when David Letterman made the Broadway venue CBS’s late-night home. But the building’s most mythic pop-cultural moment came nearly three decades earlier, when the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, helping launch Beatlemania in the U.S.
Colbert has often spoken about feeling the ghosts of that history while hosting from the same stage. The gift left Colbert visibly touched, though not too touched to rewrite the inscription in real time.
“‘To Stephen, you’re better than the Beatles. Paul McCartney.’” Colbert recited.
“It doesn’t say that,” McCartney replied.
“When my editors are done, that’s what it’s going to say, Paul,” Colbert said, before adding, “That’s so lovely. Thank you very much.”
“For you, anything,” McCartney told him.
Watch McCartney’s special delivery for Colbert at the top of this post.
