It was ten years ago today that Stephen Colbert bid farewell to, well, Stephen Colbert.
On December 18, 2014, after nine seasons and more than 1400 episodes, Comedy Central aired its final episode of Colbert’s now-legendary satirical news program, The Colbert Report.
It was a triumphant moment for the real Colbert, of course, who was exiting his show and the cable channel that he’d called home for 17 years to replace David Letterman at CBS’s Late Show the following year. But it was an even bigger moment for his brazenly conservative alter ego, who took the opportunity to declare not only victory but immortality as over 100 former guests and friends of the show participated in the show’s epic finale.
Following a tongue-in-cheek toss-over from The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, Colbert began his last episode with the line, “Folks, if this is your first time tuning into The Colbert Report, I have some terrible news.”
His final “The Word” segment gave way to a surreal in-show storyline that saw his character become immortal after killing Grimmy, a recurring character modeled after the Grim Reaper. He then launched into a performance of the World War II-era hit “We’ll Meet Again,” during which he was accompanied by Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Gloria Steinem, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Cyndi Lauper, Big Bird, Henry Kissinger, Michael Stipe, and countless others.
In his last moments, the Colbert character rode off in Santa Claus’ sleigh (seated next to Alex Trebek) signing off by saying, “From eternity, I’m Stephen Colbert.”
The Colbert Report’s finale attracted an audience of 2.4 million, making it the show’s most-watched episode ever.
Colbert made his debut as host of The Late Show on September 8, 2015, nearly four months after Letterman vacated the position. His CBS program surpassed The Colbert Report in terms of episode count on February 1, 2024.
The Colbert Report‘s streaming archive was one of the sad casualties when Paramount pulled down comedycentral.com earlier this year, disappearing much of Colbert’s Comedy Central output with it, but the finale, titled “Same to You, Pal,” can be viewed in its entirety below:
