Colbert Takes a Parting Shot at CBS in Final Week of ‘The Late Show’

The final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs a week from tonight. CBS is retiring the franchise, and Colbert, no longer bound by the cautious rhythms of a continuing gig, used Thursday’s opening to take a direct swipe at his soon-to-be-former colleagues.

The target was CBS News. Reports emerged that the network’s editorial director, Bari Weiss, mishandled travel logistics for coverage of Donald Trump’s recent trip to China. The mistake left anchor Tony Dokoupil stranded in Taiwan, unable to report from the mainland as intended. It was a logistical failure that Colbert found too rich to ignore.

On air, Colbert framed the episode with a clip that made the critique plain. The network embarrassment became punchline material, delivered with the ease of a host who calculates no long-term cost. In any other week, a late-night host might soften the blow or bury the joke. But final weeks shift the equation. Colbert has nothing left to protect, and the bit played less like a standard monologue jab and more like a personal settling of accounts.

The moment lands differently because of the broader context. Colbert’s Late Show never quite found the cultural grip of his Colbert Report character or the durable format of rivals. Its conclusion marks not just the end of a show but a tightening of the late-night landscape. When the institutional guardrails fall away in the final stretch, even small barbs reveal the shape of relationships that had been quietly fraying for years.

For one night at least, Colbert talked about CBS the way people inside television talk about it when the cameras aren’t rolling.