Late night’s long goodbye
5/21/202626 min
The end of Colbert is just the beginning.
This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jenny Lawton, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Bridger Dunnagan, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images.
Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSean Rameswaram· Host0:00
Tonight, like Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, Whoopi Goldberg, Dennis Miller, Conan O'Brien, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Wanda Sykes, Carson Daly, Chelsea Handler, George Lopez, James Corden, Larry Wilmore, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, Amber Ruffin, and many more before him, Stephen Colbert will say goodbye to late night television. He's going out with a little help from his friends, Amy Sedaris, Billy Crystal, Weird Al, Mark Hamill, Tiffany Haddish, Jeff Daniels, Martha Stewart, Ben Stiller, Josh Brolin, James Taylor, Aubrey Plaza, and Robert De Niro, and that was just last night. None of them spoke about the highly unusual circumstances in which Stephen's leaving CBS, but last night's musical guest took a swing at it.
James Taylor· Soundbite0:35
I'm here in support tonight for Stephen because, uh, you're the first guy in America who's lost his show because we got a president who can't take a joke.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:44
We're gonna say goodbye to Stephen and late night TV on Today Explained from Vox.
James Taylor· Soundbite0:48
Anyway, Stephen, these are small-minded people. They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about. This is for you.
Speaker 20:57
Support for Today Explained comes from ServiceNow. AI is moving fast, but without visibility it's just chaos. Different tools, different models, different teams using AI in completely different ways. A mess. ServiceNow turns that mess into control. With the AI control tower, you see all your AI across the business in one place. Oh, what it's doing, what it's done, what it's about to do so you stay in control. To put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com.
Skylar Diggins1:27
What's up, y'all? I'm Skylar Diggins,