Topline
The final broadcast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” began with an emotional message from the host to his audience in the studio and those watching at home, in which Colbert described his show as a “joy machine” and reflected on doing it for over a decade.
Stephen Colbert appears on stage for the final episode of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
CBS via Getty Images
Key Facts
In a slight change in format, Thursday’s show began with a cold open in which Colbert spoke directly to the audience, both in the studio and at home.
Colbert mentioned he does this before all his shows, solely for the studio audience, but on Thursday night, he wanted all of them to know, “It has been a joy for us to do the show for you.”
The late-night host referred to his show as the “joy machine” in a two-minute-long segment, a reference to the show’s house band—Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine.
Colbert then turned to Cato to describe the show’s relationship with the audience, who then called it a “reciprocal emotional relationship.”
Read What Colbert Said In His Opening Message
Folks, we have done over 1,800 of these shows and most nights I come out here and I talk to the audience beforehand and tonight I thought I’d talk to the audience in here and the audience out there at home. This show I want you to know and you to know has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show the Joy Machine, all right. Louis [Cato] stole it from us and we are currently in litigation right now. You better lawyer up, buddy. We call it the joy machine because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. 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. And I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other and how much we mean to each other. So, I would just say to them, you are all the great Achilles whom we knew. Now, on night one of the Colbert Report back in the day, I said, ‘Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you,’ and I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news with you. And I don’t know about you, but I sure have felt it. And I just want to let all y’all know in here and out there how important you’ve been to what we have done. The energy that you’ve given us. We sincerely need that to have done the best possible show we could have for you for the last 11 years. You’ve given it to us. We’ve given it all right back to you. What would you call that, Louis? [Louis Cato chimes in, “I would call that a reciprocal emotional relationship.”] That’s exactly right, because we love doing this show for you, but what we really, really love is doing this show with you. Now, I’ll say to you what I’ve said to every audience for the last 11 years, and I have meant it every time. Have a good show. Thanks for being here, and let’s do it, y’all.