Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show is no longer quite so secret.
Paul McCartney was Colbert’s unannounced guest at this afternoon’s taping of tonight’s series finale, LateNighter has learned—bringing one of the Ed Sullivan Theater’s most storied musical legacies back into the room for Colbert’s last night behind the desk.
The finale, which airs tonight on CBS, has been kept carefully under wraps, with the show declining to announce guests in advance as speculation has swirled over how Colbert would close out his 11-season run.
Audience members who attended the taping described an emotional sendoff that put a suitably grand cap on the nearly year-long countdown to goodbye following CBS’s July 2025 announcement that it would end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and retire the franchise.
LateNighter understands that Jon Batiste, Elvis Costello, Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows, and Ryan Reynolds were also on hand for the taping.
And—without spoiling the night”s biggest surprises—yes, for those who remember the finale of The Colbert Report, there is some world-building here, too.
McCartney’s appearance also gives the finale a fitting Ed Sullivan Theater resonance. The Beatles’ 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show remains one of the building’s defining cultural moments, and McCartney’s return for Colbert’s final broadcast adds a layer of late-night history to an episode already heavy with it.
Those in the room say Colbert was emotional but composed, and notably gentlemanly toward CBS to the end—a striking grace note given the circumstances surrounding the show’s cancellation and the months of scrutiny that have followed.
For now, the rest of the finale’s surprises remain intact. But the shape of the night is becoming clear: Colbert is going out with music royalty, famous friends, cosmic weirdness, and the sort of carefully controlled theatricality that has defined so much of his career.
Footage shared on Instagram by comic/Late Show warmup Paul Mercurio shows Colbert preparing to make his last entrance:
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