Well, someone had to tell him.
In an early sneak peek at Stephen Colbert‘s visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers (airing this Tuesday night), the NBC talker’s host drops on his guest the bombshell news that, well, CBS’ The Late Show has been cancelled.
Unfortunately, Colbert just so happened to be diligently partaking in a beverage at the moment that the bad news landed, setting the stage for a stupendous spit-take that is perhaps still airborne.
Watch the clip below:
.@stephenathome talks about what he’ll miss most about working at @colbertlateshow pic.twitter.com/VRBz1rvuxB
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) January 28, 2026
Turning serious afterwards, Colbert went on to concede that his show’s cancellation, announced way back in July, “feels real now.
“I mean, I know it was real,” he added, “but now, there’s four months left.”
As LateNighter was first to report, Colbert in this Late Night appearance will reveal that a series finale date of Thursday, May 21 has been set for The Late Show—fitting, seeing as how Meyers was a guest on Colbert’s first episode after CBS announced it would be ending its last late-night show standing.
“Listen, you can do comedy a lot of different places. There’s no place like the Ed Sullivan Theater—no offense,” Colbert stated. “But it’s really the people… I’m going to miss more than anything. But it feels real now. I’m not thrilled with it.”
Colbert’s Late Night visit marks his first appearance on Meyers’ show in more than a decade. He last guested on Late Night September 2, 2014, when he was still hosting The Colbert Report and Meyers was just six months into his tenure as host.
Logistically, Colbert’s Tuesday guest spot required a bit of careful choreography. He had to make the five-block trek from his perch at the Ed Sullivan Theater to 30 Rock on Monday, pre-taping his Late Night visit after banking his own show that night. (Meyers tapes two episodes most Mondays, covering both Monday and Tuesday’s broadcasts.)
While Colbert’s visits to Late Night have been scarce, Meyers has become a familiar face on The Late Show, appearing three times in the past 18 months. That run began with a June 2024 visit, followed a few months later by a taped installment of the “Colbert Questionert” that was recorded during that same appearance.
didn’t dismiss a presidential run