Stephen Colbert marked his penultimate episode of The Late Show with a whole host of celebrity guests — including some who were vocal about President Donald Trump.
Iconic musician Bruce Springsteen closed the Wednesday, May 20, episode of the CBS late-night talk show with a rendition of his anti-ICE protest song “Streets of Minneapolis,” but not before taking a shot at Trump, 79, and the owners of CBS’ parent company, Paramount Skydance.
“I am here tonight in support for Stephen because you’re the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke,” Springsteen, 76, said before his performance.
“And because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want,” the rocker added. “Stephen, these are small-minded people … they got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about.”
CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show in July 2025, citing financial reasons. However, that hasn’t stopped speculation that the show was canceled for political reasons.
In the past, Trump has taken aim at Colbert, 62, and his fellow late night hosts. Upon news of the Late Show’s cancellation, the president wrote via his Truth Social page, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!
“Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show,” he added, referring to Jimmy Fallon.
On Wednesday’s second-to-last program, Colbert reversed roles with his celebrity guests as he took the hot seat and fielded questions from the likes of Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Martha Stewart, Tiffany Haddish, Aubrey Plaza and more.
When De Niro, 82, sat in Colbert’s armchair to grill Colbert in the recurring segment “The Colbert Questionert,” the Oscar winner couldn’t resist a jab at Trump.
After asking Colbert what number he was thinking of (the answer was 3, by the way), De Niro — a staunch critic of the president — quipped, “OK, ‘cause I thought it would have been 2.5 million. That’s the number of Epstein files Trump still hasn’t released.”
Colbert’s final episode of The Late Show is set to air on Thursday, May 21, on CBS. In an interview with People published on Tuesday, May 19, Colbert teased that his final signoff will be “something simple.”
“I hope they laughed. I hope they felt better at the end of the day,” he added of his viewers. “I mean, that’s it. We’re there. We’re the last thing you see. A lot of things happen in a day, but we bat last, and so we get the last take that people hear before they go to bed, and I hope it made their day better.”
