The Goodbye Stephen Colbert Wanted to Say
The late-night host ended his talk show the way he started it—with empathy, and an eye for entertainment. By David Sims The end of a long-running late-night talk show tends to play out in one of two ways: as a mournful funeral, or a joyous wake. In the case of hosts such as David Letterman and Johnny Carson, who picked the date and manner of their retirements, the send-offs were upbeat. Stephen Colbert, Letterman’s successor as host of CBS’s The Late Show for the past 11 years, is leaving his job under more forced, awkward circumstances. The network announced in July that it had canceledColbert’s often politically sharp program for what it claimed were financial reasons; critics, and the host himself, questioned whether the move was in fact motivated by the CBS corporate owner Paramount’s desire to avoid further conflict with the Trump administration. Colbert has spent the intervening months doing the same show that put him atop the late-night ratings heap, and Thursday night’s s...