The most striking moments from Stephen Colbert's last show
The last episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" aired on Thursday. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images Stephen Colbert's time with "The Late Show" is over. The show aired its final episode on Thursday night, bringing its over three-decade run to an end. His last episode featured celebrity cameos, shots fired at CBS, and a Paul McCartney-sung farewell song. Stephen Colbert has taken his final bow. "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" aired its final episode on Thursday, ending its more than three-decade run since David Letterman started the show in 1993. Letterman passed the baton to Colbert in 2015. In a short clip before the episode began, Colbert said it had been a joy to do over 1,800 episodes of the show, and gave a shout-out to his band, "The Great Big Joy Machine." "We called it the joy machine because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine," he said. "But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn't hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears." CBS announced last July that "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" would not be renewed for another season, saying the decision to cancel the show was "purely financial." But it came after the host joked on his show about CBS paying President Donald Trump a $16 million settlement, after Trump sued CBS for what he said was "deceptive editing" in a "60 Minutes" episode. Here are the four most striking moments from Colbert's swan song . A loud round of "boos" in the monologue Colbert ended his 11-year run as the show's host. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images "Welcome one and all to the Late Show. I'm your host, Stephen Colbert. If you're just tuning into the Late Show , you missed a lot," he said at the start of the episode, drawing laughs from the crowd. But as soon as he said, "Tonight is our final broadcast from the Ed Sullivan theater," the crowd erupted into a round of booing. He quietened the crowd, saying he was lucky to have been there for 11 years. Full of celebrity came
