Paul McCartney was Stephen Colbert‘s final guest on The Late Show Thursday night. The rock giant joined the comic legend for a conversation that spanned the Beatles’ first time in America to the origins of McCartney’s forthcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
After a Chicago hot dog mishap led to Colbert’s original guest, “the Pope,” jilting the late-night host, McCartney, who just happened to be “doing some errands” in Midtown Manhattan, volunteered in his place. After recalling his first time at the Ed Sullivan Theater — a historic debut for the Beatles in America — McCartney discussed the band’s first impression of the country. “America is where all the music we loved came from, rock & roll, the blues, and the whole thing. Even going back to Fred Astaire, they’re all from America,” said McCartney. “So that’s what we thought. America was just the land of the free, the greatest democracy.”
View this post on Instagram
After the musician gave Colbert a knowing look, he shared a few amusing memories from his childhood in Liverpool, detailed his distaste for change, and announced that his favourite snack to eat after wrapping a show is a “a cheese and pickle sandwich.”
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
Then, a few moments and a commercial break later, a loud warbling noise took over the speakers and McCartney was ushered off the stage as Colbert investigated the “technical difficulty.” As the late-night host ventured backstage, he was greeted by a giant green wormhole and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. After Tyson calmly explained that the wormhole had been caused by the “two contradictory realities” of his show being the best on late night and also being cancelled.
Can Strike Force Five save Colbert’s wormhole-ridden series finale? pic.twitter.com/5ySxw1yXz6
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) May 22, 2026
Soon, Colbert was joined by Jon Stewart to confront his denial about Late Show being over, which was followed by a heartfelt bit from the gentlemen of Strike Force Five including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. At one point, Colbert had the epiphany: “I think I get it now. It looks like it’s the end, and I wish it wasn’t, but that’s not for me to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Unfortunately, before he could invite McCartney back to the stage to finish their interview, the wormhole reappeared, this time over the entire studio, and sucked up the audience, furniture, and staff right before Colbert cut to another commercial break. If Colbert’s going down, he’s taking all of late night with him, folks.
From Rolling Stone US
